Since those hijackers killed all those people in New York, though, it’s been freedom all day long. Old slogans came out of mothballs, and it was quickly learned that the schmaltz once thought permanently encrusted upon these hoary old chestnuts had gone up in smoke. “Long May She Wave,” said bumper stickers, and puzzlingly ambiguous T-shirts called 9/11 “A Day to Remember.” Freedom, as a loosely-understood but useful concept, was back, and moreover it was badder than ever. Whatever the word may actually have meant to the people now enjoying the effects of saying it in public, as a meme it was clearly ready for its closeup. |