But Isreal already has a ‘Ministry of Domestic Security’. We wouldn’t want to offend certain sensibilities with an Isreali-sounding name!
How about something nicer, friendlier? Isn’t “love” supposed by many to be the most beautiful word in the English language? Perhaps we should give Homeland Security a warmer name to let people know they it cares for their welfare–how about the Ministry of Love?
And since Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD 5 etablished the management policy for handling domestic incidents, its basic reason to exist, we should designate the primary area of investigation as Room 5 as a memorial to the important work done by Homela . . . er, sorry, the Ministry of Love, Miniluv for short.
And because we are living in the digital age, perhaps we should translate 5 into binary, so we would have Room 101.
Ministry of anything would be creepy. Very un-Amurican.
I take it someone hasn’t been reading her Orwell.
As the majority of my ancestors (all but 1 for the last 6 generations I think) are European transplants, I still have trouble thinking of any place in the US as my “Homeland.” The term suggests that numerous generations embedded themselves in a specific region (20 mile radius or less?) and can lay claim to a piece of land by right of long-term habitation that no others can. I’m thinking of a Gunther Grass novel I read about 20 years ago – The Homeland Museum? – that echoes that point.
Given the sense of family/unity/possession/commonality that the term invokes, it is definitely a useful word and appropriately selected. But it’s not my impression that Americans in general want to belong to any particular unifying group. The assumption that someone in our leadership seems to want this is creepy.
And get off the OP for assigning a word to an organization that didn’t specificaly use it. (dagnabbed dwellers of bridge shadows!) The sentiment of the post was that it’s another example of the alienating black and white choices put to us by our leadership: To other nations, “You’re with us or against us,” and now to ourselves, “is this your homeland or is it not?” The term demands that we either swear a blood oath to protect this ground from violent attack and forsake any other attachment to any other land or culture…or that we are merely visitors here with allegiances elsewhere. I simply can’t get used to the idea of belonging to the same group of humans as Bush, Cheney & Rumsfeldt any more than I can identify with Osamma, Saddam, Kim, Stalin or Hitler. But by refusing association with “The Homeland” I have put myself in “The Other” camp and am, presumably, “vulnerable.” Like Jews were vulnerable under the Nazi regime (or just about any other regime for that matter).
Creepy.
Well, there is something a little strange about this term - it implies that there is another branch of security responsible for lands other than the “homeland”…
As for Nazis - the word would be ‘Heimat’ - I don’t know what specific connotation differentiated this from Vaterland in Nazi usage. Maybe Heimat includes Lebensraum ? Any knowledgeable Nazis out there ?
May I please, please have your permission to use this quote as my new sig?