Please excuse my French brother and sister Kossacks, but I HATE those two fucking words!!! This isn't communist Russia (the Motherland), Imperialist or Nazi Germany (the Fatherland) or apartheid South Africa. Apparently some people need to be reminded that this is not a "homeland", it's the United States of America. If you are not a native American, then this is not your home, you came from somewhere else, this is your adopted country. This country screams of inclusion, after all, it adopted all uf us poor sods, if sometimes messily fought over as to who and how to include, but the beauty of it is that although none of us are originally from here, it is our home and country.
This "Homeland" bullshit is a cynical buzzword created by the Bush-Cheney cartel post 9/11 to instill us with fear and to give us a siege mentality, thereby making us more subjective to the deprivation of our personal civil liberties and a more docile submission to ultimate federal authority. It was meant to subliminally replace and subvert a principle that we have created, wrangled over, adopted and adapted, and fought to cherish and protect for 239 years.
The President used that phrase repeatedly today in his remarks from the Pentagon in giving his update on the fight against ISIL, and although I love and support our President to death, I wanted to reach through the t.v. screen, grab him by his fancy tie, and just slap him silly. Personally, I would wholeheartedly support a constitutional amendment to ban that, in my humble opinion, insulting phrase as a description of our wonderful and exceptional country.
End of rant. And I do apologize to the community for my tantrum, but in truth I feel better for having gotten it off of my chest amongst friends. Thanks so much for allowing me the opportunity to spew.
2:42 PM PT: Thanks to Clio2 for bringing to my attention an innocently used expression that could be offensive to some Kossacks...The offending phrase has been modified to make it just as effective but less offensive...