Friday, November 11, 2005

veteran's day

there's a great article in the nation today about "supporting the troops". they make alot of the points i would have made so i won't just plagiarize.

but for a long time i've been ired by the owners of gas-guzzling vehicles who sport american flags or yellow ribbons on their bumpers, or worse, their gas cap doors. it makes my fucking head spin. the irony (or insult, really) of putting a supposed symbol of support right over the very thing soldiers are maimed and dying senselessly for is deplorable.

i'm sure very little, if any, thought goes into affixing some trinket like that to one's car. a person probably figures that such a gesture is useful in dispelling the demons of vietnam-era military shunning. point being, it's probably not something somebody puts a great deal of thought into.

is this sort of blind, ignorant gesture worse than people who HAVE thought about what this war is really about and still choose to back it putting ribbons on cars? maybe i'm thinking too much about this. maybe most of the symbols are from people who only mean to support the men and women in the military and nothing more, with no indicator of backing any agenda at all.

but i'm starting to subconsciously detest those yellow ribbons and, sadly, the american flag. and it has nothing whatsoever with the military. the military is only a tool. i don't hate the gun meant for defense, i hate the people using it unjustly in my name.

4 comments:

Ian McGibboney said...

Yes, Phillip, I too find it obnoxious, with or without an agenda. People who do with no agenda deserve as much criticism as those with one by very virtue of their not thinking too much about it.

el Bow said...

Well, at least you know you've got a lot of company.

Avatar said...

//the owners of gas-guzzling vehicles who sport american flags or yellow ribbons on their bumpers, or worse, their gas cap doors//

All that says to me is, "I support meaningless Jingoistic cliches". It's such a self-righteous load of "I'm better than you" shit.

bunny said...

The yes-he's-still-around boyfriend has a ribbon magnet on the back of his hooptie that says, and I quote, "Nothing In Particular." Funny, but still a fucking ribbon nonetheless.