I am what I am ....

[Jim Parish]

Laurence Horn wrote:
> Curiously, Safire didn't mention (in his discussion of "Let Poland be
> Poland") the flap about "Let Reagan be Reagan", but maybe he
> discusses that elsewhere.  Probably used for other politicians some
> of whose advisors accuse others of preventing the true Whoever from
> coming out.  I'm not sure I've encountered a "Let Obama be Obama"
> yet, but it's probably out there...Yup, 150K raw google hits,
> including duplicates.

There's also (moving in a slightly different direction) Langston Hughes'
poem, "Let America Be America Again" (which also includes the line "America
never was America to me"):
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15609

Jim Parish
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