from mtv news: "Program directors at Clear Channel Communications, the country's largest owner of radio stations, compiled a list of more than 150 songs that might be considered questionable following the attacks and distributed it to the company's nearly 1,200 stations across the country. Tracks relating to explosions, terrorism, airplanes, skyscrapers, New York, the Middle East and even the day Tuesday comprise the list. The songs range from rock anthems such as AC/DC's 'Shot Down in Flames' and Stone Temple Pilots' 'Big Bang Baby' to oldies such as the Gap Band's 'You Dropped a Bomb on Me' and Oingo Boingo's 'Dead Man's Party.' Other less obvious songs on the list include Frank Sinatra's 'New York, New York,' Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Tuesday's Gone' and Simon and Garfunkel's 'Bridge Over Troubled Water.'"

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other songs that made it on the list include P.O.D.'s "Boom," Slipknot's "Left Behind" and "Wait and Bleed," Mudvayne's "Death Blooms," Fuel's "Bad Day," Bush's "Speed Kills," Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust," Kansas' "Dust in the Wind," Elton John's "Rocket Man" and Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire," everything by Rage Against the Machine, and John Lennon's "Imagine." i don't know all of these songs (especially the new ones because i'm just not hip anymore) but the ones that really worry me are "imagine," "bridge over troubled water" and "everything by rage against the machine."

did i miss something? i can understand the point of not playing certain songs that could possibly hurt people, just as i can understand the point of delaying movies that include airplane hijacking plots and buildings blowing up. on the other hand, when common sense gets codified into a list, isn't it in danger of becoming censorship? obviously no one wants to be callous or flippant about this horrible horrible tragedy. but what do simon and garfunkle have to do with anything? shouldn't we want to hear songs about peace? i spent an entire day last week hoping to hear "imagine." and while banning rage against the machine probably makes sense to quite a few people, i disagree with the idea that they shouldn't be played simply because they are less than patriotic (is that too much of an understatement?).

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which brings me to the issue of nationalism, specificlly blind nationalism, the kind that requires one to forget all the bad or questionable things about one's country and its actions. that kind of patriotism is dangerous. the truth is, we are not the best most wonderful country in all the world (please direct hate mail here ). the united states, as a country and as a system of government, is flawed, as all governments and countries are. we are still a country run by human beings, and we're fallible. it is no less patriotic to question america and try to make it a better place. maybe rage against the machine doesn't have the right answer, but they sure are asking some of the tough questions. as for "imagine," why shouldn't i be imagining peace on earth, the end of war, and how can those ideas possibly be in need of censorship? think about it for a minute. nothing to kill or die for. living for today. all the people sharing all the world. now imagine weapons of mass destruction moving into afghanistan. which would you prefer?

blind nationalism (the history books call it jingoism) ends in hating other countries as much as you think you love your own. it ends in japanese iternment camps. it ends in mosques being firebombed, innocent people being killed because their skin color matches some idea somebody has of the perpetrators. it ends up breeding more terrorists than we started out with. and america has its own share, whether you choose to call them that or not. people who hate, people who act upon that hatred, they are all terrorists. ask osama bin laden. ask timothy mcveigh. ask the man who drove his car into a mosque, or the guy who tried to stab a muslim girl on her way home from school. what makes them any different from each other?

like a bridge over troubled water i will lay me down...
-beatpoetgrrl

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5:22 pm-there has been some question about whether this "list" actually exists. clearchannel says this. the NY times says this. i'll let you decide.

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