I was innocently walking around the drug store today, when a rack full of “God bless America” tee shirts and that sort of thing caught my eye. I’m not into the whole flag waving bit, but I figure if it helps people heal I am cool with it. The tee-shirts are a bit tacky, but hey, I don’t have to wear them.
Then I saw It.
A bandana, with a picture of the WTC and an American flag, superimposed with large letters saying “Justice will be served”.
I almost threw up. Oh my God! How could anyone make something so tasteless? Who would buy something so rancid?
This is a war. Wars are sad events- a total failure of humanity to save itself. This is a matter of life and death. It isn’t something that you print on to cheap bandanas. It isn’t something we do to make ourselves feel better. I have resigned myself to the fact that this world may never really know peace, but for God’s sake do we have to go around printing it on bandanas?
Hey, Bush told us to get back to normal, didn’t he? Welcome back to anything-for-a-buck USA. It’s sad, but when I hear about or see things like that, I almost want to go back to three weeks ago when the nation seemed to have it’s priorities straight.
Tasteless? For true tastelessness, you have to go out to Long Island. I drove to my place on Eastern LI this weekend from NYC, and I saw the following:
A Bronco II, on which the owner had written several slogans like “Osama bin Laden, Wanted Dead or Dead” and “Turn the Middle East into Glass” in that tacky fluorescent car window paint that you can buy at Wal-Mart.
People wearing T-shirts in a PARADE that said things like “It’s time to kick ass” all over them.
Numerous cars with flags attached to their windows that were obviously ordered for $14.95 from that DR TV commercial that I’ve seen playing every hour or so.
Okay, so a little blood lust makes people feel better, but I’m sure it’s not helping the situation at all. What will Middle Easterners think when they see clips on the news showing Americans acting as unreasonable as the asswipes who openly celebrated in the streets after the WTC attacks?