Once in a while Thomas Friedman gets it right...

[housewolf]

America's DNA

<snip>

I worry that 20 years from now some eighth grader will be doing her National History Day project on how America's reaction to 9/11 unintentionally led to an erosion of core elements of American identity. What sparks such dark thoughts on a trip from London to New Delhi?

In part it is the awful barriers that now surround the U.S. Embassy in London on Grosvenor Square.

<snip>

Bottom line: We urgently need a national commission to look at all the little changes we have made in response to 9/11 - from visa policies to research funding, to the way we've sealed off our federal buildings, to legal rulings around prisoners of war - and ask this question: While no single change is decisive, could it all add up in a way so that 20 years from now we will discover that some of America's cultural and legal essence - our DNA as a nation - has become badly deformed or mutated?

This would be a tragedy for us and for the world. Because, as I've argued, where birds don't fly, people don't mix, ideas don't get sparked, friendships don't get forged, stereotypes don't get broken, and freedom doesn't ring.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/01/opinion/01friedman.html?hp

[burythehatchet]

1. let me be the FIRST to say

a broken clock is right twice a day. Friedman is a putz.

[wtmusic]

2. Thomas Friedman is 3 years behind the curve

Yes, he "gets it right" *sound of one hand clapping*.

Thanks for nothing, Thomas. You war cheerleading aided in murdering 100K Iraqis (he's trying to do a 180 but keeps running into his own ass).

[applegrove]

3. I like these words. n/t

"This would be a tragedy for us and for the world. Because, as I've argued, where birds don't fly, people don't mix, ideas don't get sparked, friendships don't get forged, stereotypes don't get broken, and freedom doesn't ring. "