Thursday, December 08, 2005

Imagine there's no countries.
It isn't hard to do.
Nothing to kill or die for.
No religion too.
Imagine all the people, living life in peace.

We'll keep imagining, John. Thank you for your example. The world is a better place because you were here.

To shift gears completely, I look at the letters down the left margin of those Imagine lyrics--IINNI. I don't think John Lennon meant anything by that line of capital Is and Ns, but seeing them makes me think of an article I just read about a poem, "The Leader," that was recently removed from a textbook in Pakistan. It turned out that it was an anonymous acrostic poem--the letters on the left margin spell out PRESIDENT GEORGE W BUSH, and the poem extols his supposed virtues. I can't bear to share the entire thing here, but here is a taste:

Growing in strength he won't be unnerved,
Ever assuring he'll stand by his word.

Shudder. You can read the entire thing, and the story behind it, here.

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