Well, no. Unlike Walt Whitman, I do not hear America singing, but I sure in heck hear it talking. There’s President Bush for instance, demanding that the people of this country &uot;speak with one voice,&uot; (in agreement with him, of course).

Poor dear, he’s confused. The denizens of a democracy rarely speak with one voice, but with many voices. Voices often raised in anger, snarling that anyone who doesn’t agree with them should, &uot;Go back where you come from.&uot; And isn’t that a stupid thing to say?

There used to be a man working in the back shop of the Tribune who had a mountain-sized prejudice against African-Americans. Often he shared with me his opinion that they should all be sent back to Africa.

Finally I asked him how long ago his grandparents had left Norway. Almost 60 years ago, he said. I told him that the people he wanted to return to Africa had ancestors that had been here more than four times that long. So probably he would feel more at home in Norway than they would in Africa.

Actually the only ones around who have any right to throw that idiotic go-back-where-you-came-from line at anyone are the defrauded Indians.

Also heard from are the three nasty, low down Democrats as, according to the Republicans, all we nasty, low down Democrats are, who implied that our president speaks with a forked tongue. Do I think President Bush is a liar? Naw! A liar is someone who, knowing the truth, deliberately maintains the opposite. The testing point is that you have to be intelligent enough to discern the truth.

Naturally we all want to prevent someone from coming here with bombs and germs to do us in. Just as we had to invade Vietnam to protect us from something called the &uot;domino effect.&uot; We lost that war. And hasn’t the domino effect been horrible?

Then there was the Spanish-American War, triggered by the blowing up of the Battleship Maine in the Havana Harbor. President William McKinley spent a whole night on his knees before realizing, with the help of God and publisher William Randolph Hearst, that engaging in war with Spain was part of our doctrine of &uot;Manifest Destiny.&uot;

That was the war, as you recall, that resulted in the independence of Cuba, freeing it from the cruel and inhumane treatment of the brutal Spaniards. If you had any doubt about what beasts those Spaniards were you had only to look at a photo in a Hearst newspaper showing a murderous Spaniard drowning some fear-frozen Cuban children.

It was a picture that certainly accomplished its purpose. Later when, as an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota, I took a class in propaganda, that picture was mentioned as being most effective.

Oh no, no one was in danger of being drowned. Touched up a little, the photograph actually was taken at a Y swimming pool where a class of beginners were taking swimming lessons taught by a Spanish-looking instructor.

Do I trust any politician? Yes, I trust Sen. Robert Byrd, who with great courage, points out that the declaration of war is an act to be shared by the president with the members of Congress. Of course, Sen. Byrd and I are a bit over the hill. No doubt we both went to schools where memorizing the amendments in the Bill of Rights was mandatory.

Schools in which, if we couldn’t explain our system of checks and balances, our fellow classmates would have felt entirely justified in telling us to go back to whence we came.

Love Cruikshank is an Albert Lea resident. Her column appears Thursdays.