We don't know exactly who came up with the invented word "Homeland" back in the days after 9-11, but clearly it was a word meant to promote fear, jingoism, and unquestioning patriotism. No matter that this new word was clumsy, inelegant and overtly manipulative. In those days of bi-partisan and fervent patriotism, it was abundantly clear that almost nobody, and certainly no politician, was going to ask questions like, "Why do we need a new word to refer to the United States, and, is it really appropriate for this new word to have unmistakable resonance with the Nazi concept of Fatherland?"
As we bid adieu to the most subversive, divisive, lawless, incompetent and destructive administration in our nation's history, as we open a new chapter, it is time to add an exclamation point to this moment of transition.
It's time to get rid of all official uses of the word Homeland.
The Wikipedia entry on Homeland is instructive:
A homeland (rel. country of origin and native land) is the concept of the territory (cultural geography) to which an ethnic group holds a long history and a deep cultural association with —the country in which a particular national identity began... When used as a proper noun, the word, as well as its cognates in other languages (ie. Heimatland in German) often have ethnic nationalist connotations: Fatherland, Motherland, Mother country, each having some distinct interpretation according to nationality or historical usage.
While politicians all jumped on board, others had the courage to question to concept of the Homeland early on. Mickey Kaus talked about The Trouble With "Homeland" in a piece in Slate back in June, 2002. Characterizing it as "creepy" and "Un-American", he notes, "I've heard enough grumbling from friends who don't want to be unpatriotic but can't help cringing and wondering out loud why this suddenly became a word we all had to use." Noting the clear reference to Nazi Germany, he adds, "it explicitly ties our sentiments to the land, not to our ideas... spouting an unfamiliar phrase in the name of patriotism ... in itself has a Big Brotherish aspect, or at least a disturbingly phony PR aspect."
Even conservatives such as Peggy Noonan had the creeps about Homeland:
... Mr. Bush should ... change the name. The name Homeland Security grates on a lot of people, understandably. Homeland isn't really an American word, it's not something we used to say or say now. It has a vaguely Teutonic ring--Ve must help ze Fuehrer protect ze Homeland!--and Republicans must always be on guard against sounding Teutonic. As a brilliant friend who is also actually an intellectual says, "I think it's creepy, in a Nazi-resonating way, any time this sort of home-and-hearth language is used by people who are essentially police. When police honestly call themselves police, or 'domestic security,' I salute and say 'Yes officer.' When they call themselves 'Protectors of the Hearth' I get the creeps." He adds, "I'd argue we want to feel we're pursuing our old values in a new more dangerous world" and suggests "trusty, familiar-sounding words as our touchstones."
More recently, in a piece on the Wired blog back in July, 2007, Ryan Singel argued that There's No Such Thing as the Homeland, and addresses its ugly symbolism directly:
People who write and think of their country as the Homeland with a capital H tend to think that they can redefine torture, ignore international treaties, fund disinformation efforts to keep morale high, launch wars based on hunches and emphasize the power of the executive branch because they consider themselves the good guys who are the only ones who know what's right for the country. They only want to protect the Homeland, don't you see? The vocabulary is symptomatic of a rigid, nationalistic world view.
After nearly six years of bloody preemptive war and occupation of Iraq with the mendacious pretext of defending the Homeland, after warrantless wiretapping, Abu Ghraib, Gitmo, rendition, torture, indefinite detention without charge and official disdain for due process, international treaties and international law, and after Katrina and the bureaucratic disaster that is the Department of Homeland Security, the concept of U.S. Homeland has taken on the additional and perverse connotations of unaccountable executive lawlessness, incompetence and defiant failure.
When this country elected Barack Obama by a commanding margin, we voted not only for change, but also for honesty, open discourse and a return to constitutional law. Barack Obama has made it as clear as anyone in the last 50 years that words -- and symbols -- matter.
As President Obama moves ahead with restructuring the DHS, including once again making FEMA a high-level independent agency, it would seem to be an opportune time to officially change the name -- Department of Domestic Security perhaps? -- and put behind us one of the worst symbols of the bleakest chapter in our nation's history.