From Pine View Farm

“Homeland” 1

The use of the word “homeland” to refer to the United States of American has always troubled me.

It smacks too much of the “vaterland” of the Germans and the “motherland” of the Russians.

And, face it, with very few exceptions, citizens of the United States of America have other homelands: for my ex, homeland is Italy; for some, it is Ireland; and so on.

Under any other regime, the Department of Homeland Security would have been the Department of Domestic Security.

The choice of the word “homeland,” frankly, gives me the willies for what it reveals about the subconcious of the current Federal Administration.

I voiced these concerns when DHS was created, but that was long before I had this blog, where I can present my opinions to my two or three faithful readers.

Today, I learned that I share those willies with others: Eugene Robinson in today’s Washington Post:

The word homeland is a vivid but relatively inconsequential example — less a distortion than an infelicitous choice that makes us sound as if we had quaint harvest rituals and a colorful national costume. It strikes an odd note, with its vague connotations of ethnic solidarity and ancient nationalism, and it gives off more than a whiff of us-vs.-them. This nation does have enemies from whom we need vigilant protection, but something more like “domestic security” would have done just fine, with less baggage.

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1 comment

  1. Opie

    September 12, 2006 at 10:34 pm

    I still wish they had gone with State Committee on Internal Vigilance.