I wish I had a slogan such as Garrison Keeler's intro to the Prairie Home Companion...'It's been a slow week in Lake Wobegon'. A catch phrase always comes in handy. Its the little bit of nothing somehow signifying so much. Perhaps I'll try a few out in the upcoming weeks. Until then you simply have to put up with my meager beginnings.
Something disturbing struck me this past week. I found conclusive evidence there is simply no urgency to end this war. It wasn't a decoded message or even an overheard conversation between generals. Rather something much more significant, telling and truthful: a sweatshirt.
Yes a sweatshirt, then a tee-shirt. Later a keychain then a shot glass.
Merchandise. Merchandise brandishing a logo of a man's face with an American flag wrapped around him in such a way as to conjure images of Lawrence of Arabia; and underneath or behind the slogan, 'Operation Iraqi Freedom'.
I nearly got sick the first time I saw it. What sort of sick joke is it to produce a line of merchandise for a war. I can understand an 'I was there' tee-shirt from Disney Land. But from a war? And selling it at the Exchange in a war zone. Unthinkable.
And who is the target customer? The soldiers, sailors and marines dying daily? Perhaps its the thousands of Iraqi civilians dying from suicide bombers each month? Since when did war and Disney Land come join hands?
I don't remember, for it was not my time, but i heard about a time when war was sacred and solemn. a time when the 'merchandise' was a flag and a uniform. when the 'i was there' souvenirs were scars and German Lugers. Why in God's name has it fallen to this? What happened to the fierce, unconquerable spirit supposedly innate in the American psyche.
'Dead,' I respond. 'But at least I have a sweatshirt.'
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1 comment:
Nothing you have written so far has saddened me as much as this. I wish you were home.
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