the WTC crap rant

[moonwise]

Over the weekend, while I was at my in-laws' house, I went out to the K-mart to look for a tart tin for baking some bread. Dad Q said they had decent stuff so what the heck. I walked into the store and wandered around for a while looking for the bakeware. As I looked around (Kmarts are big and messy,) I saw an overabundance of stupid crap relating to the WTC disaster. Up in the front there was the usual assortment of posters: "We Will Not Forget" and "God Bless America;" pins, T-shirts, cheap flags. It was annoying and cheap, but I'd seen all of it before.

Now don't get me wrong - I love my country and I support it, but it is so damn sickening to see the load of profiteering crap that has flooded the market since Sept. 11th. And people must be buying it! How about, instead of buying junk, people do something that actually helps the country, like vote? How about getting involved in local gov't and the like? It's understandable that people are upset. I myself have laughed at the remake of Day-O that's been circling the Web. But... it's an uncomfortable kind of funny. This conflict is no laughing matter, it's not a "GO TEAM" type of thing. It's damn serious, and living as close as I do to Anthrax Ground Zero, it's fucking scary.

Then I turned the corner in the K-mart and there was the item that took the taco: you know those huge plastic bottles with popcorn in them that usually have some sports logo on them? Well, there was a display of these bottles, and they were printed with "God Bless America" and an American flag. I was so mad - what a complete abasement of our country's flag and what's left of things we hold sacred. When I went to the checkout, there was another display of silkscreened face towels with the flag on it as well. What - we all need to dry our hands and faces on the flag too? How completely cheap.

I have a deep respect for our flag. I don't agree with a lot of things my country does, but I live here and I'm an American, and I don't want to be anything else but that. I have respect also for our Armed Forces, and the men and women who continue to serve our country. This is why I find this jingoistic trash to be such an insult. Obviously people have no concept of true wartime, or it would disappear. They ought to go talk to their grandparents, who lived through WWII and understand what it really means for the public to pull for a country.

Because it might come to pass that we'll understand it fully, too.

Comments

[hidetomatsumoto.livejournal.com]

I agree... How much of this is patriotism, and how much is about profits?

[lordraziel.livejournal.com]

I'd say it's more profit than patriotism. Anyway to make a buck, right? Arafel's point about voting and being active in government is right on the mark. People don't want to get down to brass tacks and do the hard things that will really help out. No, I'd rather wave the flag a little ($9.99 at Walmart), feel all warm and fuzzy inside and curse those darn Arabs than do something that actually does some good.