Peace, what is your name?

Our thanks to DDD European Bureau Chief Jesse Lynch, who points out that the blogger I've been calling Raed is actually not Raed. Raed is his friend, who is now in Jordan. The Baghdad Blogger goes by the name Salam Pax, which is what you might call a pen name, a nom de plume, a moniker changed to protect the innocent, an alias, a pseudonym, like Mark Twain or Ellery Queen or John Wayne. The name he chose also has something in common with "Dagley Dagley", as it's the same word twice, though his is in two different languages. That word is a hope we all share, and we need to speak it more than twice: peace. There's been no word from Salam Pax since Monday, but we're still hoping, as are a lot of other people according to this Philadelphia Inquirer article, "A blog goes silent, and world holds its breath". Fair use excerpt: "While bombs rained on his beloved Baghdad and fierce battles roiled the sands of Iraq, people around the world spent last weekend seeking a man called Peace." Thanks again, Jesse, for spotting that one.

By the way, did you know that Ellery Queen is actually two cousins who write together? Or that John Wayne is an airport? (That fact led to one of my all-time favorite headlines in the Orange County Register: "Plans Under Way to Expand John Wayne".) And do you know who wrote this?

<<For in a republic, who is "the Country"? Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant- merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them. Who, then, is "the Country"? Is it the newspaper? is it the pulpit? Is it the school superintendent? Why, these are mere parts of the country, not the whole of it; they have not command, they have only their little share in the command. They are but one in a thousand; it is in the thousand that command is lodged; they must determine what is right and what is wrong; they must decide who is a patriot and who isn't.>>

If you do, send the answer to janetdd@optonline.net or click on my name anywhere on this blog to e-mail me.

Wild Art Week goes on...