Introducing
her performance of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America”
at the Democratic National Gala, Barbra Streisand read material
which she identified as having been written by William Shakespeare.
It had been passed to her by a friend, but she learned the following
day that it is, rather, a passage which is widely circulated on
the internet as an excerpt from Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”
but which is, in fact, an anonymous composition, not Shakespeare
at all.
She wanted this brought to your attention, with the following
note from her:

“The
authorship of this is important. But it doesn’t detract from the
fact that the words themselves are powerful and true and beautifully
written. Whoever wrote this is damn talented and should be writing
their own play.”

For
those website visitors who have not read the passage elsewhere,
it appears below:

“Beware
the leader who bangs the drums of war
in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor,
for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword.
It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind.

And
when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood
boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have
no
need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry,
infused with fear and blinded with patriotism, will offer up all
of
their rights unto the leader, and gladly so.

How
do I know?

For
this is what I have done.

And
I am Caesar.