Tag Archives: patriotism

It Feels Good to be Looking Forward

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A quote by Dan Rather sums it up nicely.

I was listening to NPR yesterday morning when the breaking news came: enough votes had been counted to call the US presidential election for Joe Biden.

I followed the responses on Twitter, which I’d been pretty much avoiding since Election Day. I knew that doom scrolling Twitter or watching red and blue maps on TV or the web wasn’t going to change the results. It would just put me in the nervous, nail-biting state so much of America — and the world — was in.

So I waited.

Even on Friday, when a website I’d never heard of (and won’t link to here) called the election for Biden and was retweeted by so many of my Twitter friends, I refused to accept the results. As I told friends, I’m waiting for AP or NPR to call the results. Until then, I was not going to believe that either party had won.

So I really welcomed the news on Saturday morning. Not only would I stop hearing people complain about how long it was taking, but the candidates that could help us recover from the four-year nightmare of the Trump administration would be taking the reins. There was hope for America’s future after all.

Joy on Twitter — and Worldwide

I spent a lot of time on Twitter yesterday. Doomscrolling was over. Now it was joyscrolling. What else could I call it? So many happy people celebrating with tweets. And then sharing photos and videos of celebrations in the streets. Yes, people were actually dancing for joy in the streets of cities all over the world. And when photos and videos of celebrations in other countries started rolling in — fireworks in London, church bell pealing in Paris — I was almost brought to tears. The world had been watching and they were happy for us, happy that we’d used our democratic process to vote out a dangerous tyrant.

Four Seasons Shirt
@sawdustbear on Twitter designed these shirts; all profits go to the runoff elections for Georgia senate seats.

There was more of the same overnight and this morning.

Joyful tweets. Jokes about Trump. Jokes about Rudy Giuliani’s press conference in the back parking lot of a landscaping company next door to a porn shop. (WTF? Buy your souvenir t-shirt here; I did.) Tweets from people sharing their feelings about voting out a narcissistic, misogynist, failed businessman who should have died in obscurity after his stint as a reality TV star. (WTF are Trump supporters thinking?) Links to articles in newspapers and on websites about the ramifications of the results. Congratulation tweets and statements from world leaders glad to see that America might be getting back on the path to its world leader status.

And a tweet from Dan Rather with the simple observation that it felt good to be looking forward.

This pretty much says it all for me. Instead of having to worry about what Trump is going to say or do next to take America backwards into the 1950s or embarrass us on the world stage, we can look forward to a president who will help us get past the COVID-19 virus, rebuild our damaged economy, and get back into our previously held position as world leader. He’ll tackle America’s real problems — instead of promoting resorts and playing golf — such as our failures in health care, education, and environmentally friendly energy solutions. He’ll embrace science and scientists, putting his trust in them — as he should — to help us move forward in the technologies that were shunned by the Trump administration.

And maybe — just maybe — he’ll be able to stitch our divided nation back into UNITED States.

Honestly, I think this will be his biggest challenge. As long as Trump supporters and their sick, selfish, xenophobic mentality exists, the United States will remain divided.

Trump supporters don’t understand that what made America great in the first place was its melting pot of immigrants bringing in knowledge and new ways of thinking and willing to work hard to get ahead. They don’t even seem to remember that America is a nation of immigrants — ask any of the native people who were a lot better off before “white men” came. (And many thanks to the Navajo, Hopi, Yavapai, Tohono O’odham, and other Native American peoples in Arizona for helping to turn Arizona blue.)

And Trump supporters don’t understand that the country is strongest and best able to take the world stage as a leader when all of its people are housed, fed, healthy, and educated. Ironically, these people — many of whom are struggling to meet these basic needs in their own family — are okay with letting fulfillment of these needs come at a high price. Why should someone go into deep debt to get an education that will help them start life with good job or career? Why should someone have to struggle to cover the cost of health insurance, or forego medical treatment they can’t afford, or go into bankruptcy when a disease they can’t avoid — like cancer — needs treatment? Why is it that a budget junk food meal at a fast food joint is cheaper than a balanced meal prepared at home? Why are there so many homeless people — homeless veterans, for pete’s sake! — in the richest country in the world?

Why are we so far behind other first world nations in standard of living, happiness, health, education, and well-being?

No, I don’t think Joe Biden will fix all that. But I think he’ll try. And that’s a hell of a lot more than Trump did between his golf outings.

And I know Biden won’t stoke the same divisive hate that made Trump so popular among his small minded supporters.

Nope.

NOPE
Here’s the sticker that’s been on my truck’s rear driver side window for the past four years.

Yesterday, I finally took the Nope sticker off the back of my pickup truck. The sticker had been a Hillary Clinton campaign sticker and originally had her name below the yellow Nope image. I cut it off before putting the sticker on my truck right after the 2016 election.

Throughout the next four years, it got a lot of comments. Some rednecks in Arizona tried to start a fight with me and my friend Janet. I laughed at them. More recently, an older woman in the local Bi-Mart parking lot assured me that Trump would win. I told her she was an idiot if she voted for him and thoroughly enjoyed the rage that came over her as I drove away. In the past, I’ve been asked by Trump supporters what the sticker means; my standard response is, “Look closely and figure out for yourself.” Their reaction when the light comes on is priceless.

Other folks really liked the sticker. I think I got more positive comments over the years than negative ones.

But I took it off yesterday — and was actually quite pleased at how easily it peeled away from the glass. Why? Well, I honestly believe that some Trump supporters will be out for blood and I don’t want to be their target. It’s the same reason so many Biden supporters didn’t put a sign on their lawn. When you live or travel in a red area, you need to be careful.

I don’t need to label myself one way or another. After all, I’m really not supporting a candidate. I’m supporting my country, the United States of America.

All Americans should be doing the same.

Racism is Alive and Well in Quartzsite, AZ

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A few thoughts about a startling experience.

I had the batteries replaced on my RV yesterday in Quartzsite, AZ. I’d been camping off the grid about 25 miles from there with friends and was having trouble keeping a charge overnight. Another friend did some troubleshooting with a multimeter and concluded that one of the two 12-volt batteries was dead and the other was on its last legs. There’s a great RV fix-it place in Quartzsite called RV Lifestyles so that’s where I took it. They got the job done in about a half hour and there was free music and hotdogs (and the usual collection of folks you get when you offer free food) while I waited with Penny.

Afterwards, I visited Tyson Wells, where one of the many “shows” is going on. I bought a new coyote tail for my Honda’s rear-view mirror and a pair of long wind socks to replace the wind ribbons on my home. And lunch, which was cold by the time I got it so I wound up reheating it for dinner later on.

Signs from our ugly past

With time on my hands and no real plan for the rest of the day, I went over to the remnants of the old Main Event show in the northwest corner of town. Last year, I’d bought a neon sign at one of the shops there, but I didn’t want to go back, fearing I might want another one. Instead, I saw a metal building off the road with the sign “Henry’s Antiques and Cast Iron Imports.” There were some metal sculptures outside and although none of them were to my taste — except maybe the flamingo on a bicycle that’s designed to hold a flowerpot — I thought I’d kill some time with a look inside. So I parked, cracked the windows in the truck for Penny, and went in.

Henry's Antiques
Looks interesting (and innocent) enough, no?

Inside was more of the same, although smaller pieces. A lot of signs. Bins full of cast iron nicknacks and things to hang on the wall like hooks and insect sculptures and crosses and trivets. A lot of different shapes and sizes, all heavy iron. On the wall were various signs made of a lighter metal, roughly cut and painted, obviously designed to represent the metal signs from 50s. Signs you might put in your kitchen that said “EAT” or “Coffee.” Metal bird houses in all kinds of shapes. There were stacks of repro old gas station signs, made new to look old. Man cave or college dorm stuff.

The building was spacious with aisles of bins with the smaller iron pieces. I went up and down the rows, cataloging, in my mind, the kind of stuff they have. If I found something I liked and could use, I’d likely buy it — the prices were reasonable enough. But I also like to just see what’s available in case I have a need sometime in the future. I’m back in the area most winters and can always pick up something I’ve seen.

And then I saw something odd. A black metal sign with white trim, lettering, and arrows. REST ROOMS. WHITE. COLORED.

Segregationist Restrooms Sign
Who would buy something like this?

I was immediately taken aback. It was a throwback into America’s segregationist days, days we should be ashamed of, days that should have been long behind us. Was this someone’s idea of reminding us about those bad old days? If so, it was in poor taste.

Segregationist Signs
Who would make something like these?

And that’s when I realized that all the signs in the row were similarly themed. Bin after bin, there were signs for showers and drinking fountains and officer dining. And even a WHITE ONLY sign.

These weren’t one-offs or actual antiques. There were bins literally filled with these signs. Dozens of them. Possibly hundreds in total.

They weren’t funny. They weren’t some sort of joke. They were a horrible reminder of how cruel people can be. Segregation was a stain on the fabric of our nation. Yet this shop was selling signs that seemed to say segregation was okay, it was part of the good old days like the old Sinclair gas sign over there.

Why would anyone buy one of these signs? I cannot imagine. Yet someone must buy them or they wouldn’t be manufactured.

And that’s when I realized that someone somewhere had made an iron mold to run off signs like these in quantity. And was selling them to stores like this one. So they could be bought by…well, who?

The thought that there were still people in this country who would buy and presumably hang something like this shocked and disgusted me.

You don’t have to be black to be offended by racism. You just have to be human. I was offended. Deeply offended. I took these photos just to show what I’d seen. I was too shaken to document them all. I just wanted to get out of there. I just wanted to put it behind me.

I left, taking a photo of the store front. I was already thinking about what I needed to say in my blog.

And then there’s that flag…

Of course racism is alive and well in the United States. It’s in the news every time a white police officer shoots an unarmed black man. And now it’s back in the news after Donald Trump’s attack on John Lewis, who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. to help end segregation and give black people the same civil rights white people have always enjoyed. “All men are created equal” — that’s what our Declaration of Independence says — but too many people still don’t think it’s true.

And some vendors and shops in Quartzsite — and elsewhere — cater to these people.

The most obvious racist symbol for sale in tourist shops is the Confederate flag. I’m offended by that, too. This is the United States of America. We fly the American flag here, not the flag that symbolizes the war that nearly tore this nation apart and caused American 620,000 deaths. The Confederate flag symbolizes a way of life that not only approved of slavery, but depended on it. It symbolizes a racist mentality. Anyone who tries to say otherwise is either lying or deluding themselves.

The American flag is the perfect symbol of our nation. The 13 stripes (for our original 13 colonies) with a single field of blue (actually called the union) that unites the 50 stars (for our 50 states). One nation, indivisible. Isn’t that what it’s all about?

People who call themselves “American patriots” and then fly a Confederate flag are hypocrites, plain and simple.

Sorry state of affairs

It’s 2017 and the world is a mess. I blame it on divides. The old “us vs. them” mentality.

Whites vs. blacks. Natives vs. immigrants. Conservatives vs. liberals.

Everywhere you look, there are people trying to separate themselves from each other, trying to say that their group is better or smarter or somehow more worthy than the other group.

Meanwhile, people are dying. It doesn’t matter whether it’s shootings or starvation or war or lack of health care. The “us vs. them” mentality is tearing our country and the rest of the world apart.

Why?

I’ll never understand why we let hate and anger destroy ourselves.

Back in the 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. led a crusade for civil rights. His fight, which was mostly won, cost him his life. I say “mostly” because I don’t see true racial equality in this country. Sure, it’s on paper. But its not in the actions and attitudes of all Americans. And when I visit a shop and see segregationist signs for sale or drive past a house with a Confederate flag flying in the front yard, I lose all hope that there will ever be true racial equality in my country.

What a sorry thing to have to blog about on what would have been Martin Luther King Jr’s 88th birthday.

I Am Patriotic

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Really.

A lot of people think I’m not very patriotic. They think I complain too much about the way the government is handling the war in Iraq (not “mission accomplished,” in case you haven’t noticed), health care, and tax breaks for big corporations and the ultra rich. These people seem to forget that our country was founded by complainers who, feeling that they were being treated unfairly by their King (coincidentally named George), did something about it.

(Of course, most of today’s Americans are too weak to stand up for what’s right. And with a huge number of them believing the lies spun out by cable news networks (think Fox), they’re misled to thinking that their biggest worry should be that someone other than a born again Christian Republican may be sitting in the White House come January 2009. But that’s a topic for another post.)

American FlagIn reality, I’m very patriotic. I love my country — well, at least the country I grew up in, which has the same name as the one I’m a citizen of now. I believe in the “American Way” as it was in the 50s and 60s and 70s. I still think the “American Dream” is possible for people who work hard instead of trying to figure out ways to beat the system. Today’s corruption of American is pretty tough to swallow sometimes.

I believe in contributing to my community to make it better — but not when the leaders of my community are obviously out to make themselves, their friends, and their family members rich or influential at the expense of the people they’re supposed to be serving. I believe in helping my neighbor when help is needed. I also remember that America has always been a melting pot of people and their cultures, different doesn’t mean bad, and everyone has a right to pursue their own happiness, as long as it doesn’t infringe on others’.

I believe in our First Amendment freedoms, especially the freedom of speech and the freedom to practice any religion I like, even if that’s no religion at all. I’m proud to be part of a country whose founding fathers had enough foresight to keep religion out of government, even if I’m ashamed that the Executive Branch and half the Legislative Branch of government have forgotten that part of the Constitution exists.

I’m patriotic, but I’m not blind and I’m not stupid. And I feel sorry for the people who believe the crap they hear on cable news networks and read in viral e-mail messages.

Support Our Troops

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A rant followed by step-by-step instructions for those who care.

I need to start this article with a statement: I do not support the War in Iraq. I think it was a mistake. I also think that the tragic loss of lives — our service men and women and Iraqi civilians — is a tragedy. This is not up for discussion here and if you post a comment trying to argue with me about it on my blog, I will delete the comment. Write your own blog entry about this issue if you feel so strongly about it.

That said, even though I don’t support the war, I do support our troops. The men and women in our armed services are making incredible sacrifices — sometimes even the ultimate sacrifice — to do their duty and serve their country. They’re living in cramped quarters, often without simple luxuries — lip balm comes to mind — and looking forward to the day they can come home to be with their families and friends and rebuild their lives.

Yet while they’re overseas, getting shot at and blown to pieces by roadside bombs, we’re all comfortably at home watching Dancing with the Stars and the latest reality TV crap in front of our wide-screen TVs, complaining about gas prices and our jobs, and spending our money on trivial things that we don’t really need.

Got a Minute?

Yesterday, I got an e-mail message from my friend Joe (not his real name). Joe is a good guy who means well. Like a handful of other people, he forwards jokes and other interesting tidbits to me via e-mail. The jokes are usually pretty funny, but not reprintable here. Many of the tidbits are Democrat- or Hillary-bashing exercises written up by some Republican party-liner to spread the hate. Some of the other tidbits are calls for action, like the one subject-lined “Got a Minute???” that arrived in my e-mail box. (And yes, it did have three question marks.)

The e-mail pointed me to a Xerox-sponsored Web site where you could design a card for and it would be printed and sent to a random service man or woman for free. Here’s the text of the message:

If you go to this web site, www.LetsSayThanks.com you can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq . You can’t pick out who gets it, but it will go to some member of the armed services.

How AMAZING it would be if we could get everyone we know to send one!!! This is a great site. Please send a card. It is FREE and it only takes a second.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the soldiers received a bunch of these? Whether you are for or against the war, our guys and gals over there need to know we are behind them…

This is wrong on so many levels:

  • This is obviously a public relations ploy by Xerox to make them look like the “we support our troops” good guys. It may seem like a huge effort by Xerox, but the cards you create online are sent to another support organization that randomly sticks them in boxes already going overseas to the troops. So for the cost of a few color printers and consumables, Xerox looks like a big supporter.
  • Can Americans honestly achieve the warm and cuddly “feel good” feelings they’re evidently trying to achieve by clicking a few buttons and filling our a form on a Web site? Is this an appropriate sacrifice to show support for our troops? It’s free and it takes a minute. Is this what we’ve sunk to? We can support the troops by visiting a free Web site and taking “a minute” to create card?
  • How do you think our service men and women really see these cards? These are machine-generated cards with a handful of standard “thank you” wishes. It’s the equivalent of handing a box of Hallmark cards to a stranger. Does it have any meaning? Do you honestly think the service people who get them feel adequately thanked when they get one? Or insulted that that’s the best we could do?

Amazing? That Americans can take a minute out of their day to click a few buttons on a Web site and send a free card? Pretty sad, if you ask me.

Now, I’m not stopping you from visiting the Web site and sending cards. Go right ahead. But don’t stop there.

True Support Takes More than a Minute

As you may have gathered, Joe’s e-mail pissed me off. I responded rather harshly, which will probably offend his Republican sensitivities. Although I don’t mean to hurt his feelings, sometimes you need to be harsh to bring people back to reality and help them see more of an issue than they already see.

But since I don’t feel that it’s right to criticize one solution without providing a better one, I spent about an hour doing my homework and came up with a better idea for folks interested in truly making a difference in a deployed soldier’s life.

I found a Web site called Any Soldier (www.anysoldier.com). It collects e-mail messages from real soldiers and marines in real military units. These service people explain where their units are based, what living conditions are like, and what kinds of things they need or want to make their lives a little nicer. The person sending the e-mail represents a group and has agreed to distribute any material addressed to “Any Soldier” at his or her address to the soldiers that most need or want these items.

Here’s an example e-mail posted on November 25:

Hi and thank you for this wonderful website. I am the leading petty officer for the Medical Department of the USS Tarawa. We are currently on deployment to the Gulf. I have many sailors who are not receiving packages/mail. This is causing a little dip in moral. Even though some families send extra stuff in the mail, it doesn’s even come close to covering all sailors out here. The following are a few items we deem a luxery out here:

Flushable baby wipes, female and male razors, body lotion, Sunscreen (30+ SPF), Lip Balm/gloss, Tiger Balm (for stiff muscles), or any muscle rub, White cotton crew neck t-shirts: S/M/L, Gum, Dental floss, Toothpaste, ponytail holders, bobby-pins (black/brown), Playing cards, Books (mystery, sci-fi, history), Movies (DVD), Music CD’s, writing paper, pens, pencils, post cards, Lysol or Clorox disinfecting wipes, Hand sanitizer, Q-tips, cotton balls, beef jerky, magazines (women and mens), sewing kits, instant coffee, cool-aid packets (single serve), crystal light single serve drink packets, tea, kleenex (tissues), double-sided tape, crossword puzzles.

Thank you so much!! We really do appreciate your support!

Respectfully,

HM1(SW) [omitted]

Get the idea? An e-mail like this makes it possible to send a custom care package to service people who really need them. And look at these items! Lip balm, playing cards, Q-Tips, pencils! The cost of many of these items is trivial, especially when purchased in bulk at a place like Costco. But if they’re simply not available to these people where they’re deployed, they’re priceless.

Sending a care package sure sounds a lot better to me than sending a machine-generated greeting card.

Spend a Few Minutes and a Few Dollars

Here’s how you can read the e-mail messages from soldier in this program and get their deployed addresses to send them packages.

  1. Go to http://www.anysoldier.com/WhereToSend/.
  2. In the left column of the page, click the name of a soldier who has recently submitted an e-mail message.
  3. The message appears in the main part of the window. Read the message.
  4. If the person represents a unit you’d like to support with a care package, click the HERE link near the top of the page to get that person’s address. You’ll have to fill in a form with your contact information — I’m pretty sure this is for security reasons. When you submit the form, the address is e-mailed to you.
  5. Repeat this process as desired. You can request up to two addresses per day.

The soldier’s message page lists all of the e-mail messages that soldier has sent, so if a soldier has sent more than one message, you can read them all on one page. You can also see how many times that soldier’s address has been requested.

You can also donate to AnySoldier.com. Your donation helps keep the Web site alive. However I believe that if you have limited financial resources, they’re best spent sending items to the soldiers themselves.

Some Notes on Shipping

When the address for the service member arrives in your e-mail in box, it will include some links. Click the one beside “Restrictions to this address.” A Web page with additional shipping information appears. This is important information because it will provide additional details you’ll need for shipping. For example, the above-quoted service member’s location does not allow packages addressed to “Any Soldier,” etc. and must be accompanied by customs Form 2976-A if it weighs more than 16 ounces.

Although sending a care package to a deployed military unit does require you to do some extra paperwork, it really isn’t that much of a hassle. And it isn’t as expensive as you might think (from the U.S.), since you’re sending to a FPO address with a U.S. zip code.

Possibly the most cost-effective way to get a package to a deployed unit is with a U.S. Mail Priority Mail Flat Rate Box. This method of shipping costs the same ($8.95) no matter how heavy the box is, so you can fill it with magazines or books and it’ll still get there fast without costing you a fortune. (If you have a lot of printed material to send and don’t care how long it takes to get there, Media Mail is usually cheaper.) You can do all the paperwork to create and print a label, fill in the customs forms, and print postage right on the Postal Service’s Web site, www.usps.com.

All of the resources I’ve seen say that you must be quite specific about a package’s contents in the customs form. Packages may be X-rayed and if something inside the package looks suspicious and is not listed on the form, the package may be rejected or destroyed. Although you can make this easy by sending just a few types of items in a package, remember that this exercise is to provide support — not make your life easier. (If you want it easy, send a machine-generated card.)

When you package the items, be sure to keep edibles separate from non-editble or hygiene items. You wouldn’t want those cookies you baked tasting like deodorant when they arrive, would you? Also, be sure to fill empty spaces in the box with packing peanuts or air bags, etc. Shredded paper works, too. Be sure to properly pad any items that could be damaged in shipping.

And really get personal. Enclose a hand-written card addressed to the unit representative who took the time and effort to post the message on AnySoldier.com. Tell him or her what a great job they’re doing and how much you appreciate their efforts. If you don’t agree with the war, keep it to yourself — they don’t need to know that. Instead, just give them your wishes for a speedy and safe return home.

How can you get more involved?

First, spread this information to as many people who care about our service men and women as you can.

Contact your local school to see if the kids want to get involved by putting together care packages, drawing pictures, and creating cards for service members you can reach with this program. Ditto for your church group, if you have one, or other social organization.

If you’re on a budget and can’t afford to buy care package items or pay for the postage to send them, getting others involved in your efforts could be a good way to say your thanks. Take a copy of an e-mail from a unit representative and approach friends and family members for their contributions. You can do the leg work and let busy people help out with the cost. If you approach 10 people and they each contribute an item and $1 toward the cost, you can easily send a nice little care package to someone who will appreciate it.

How AMAZING it would be if everyone who read this post or got this information from someone else who did sent out a custom care package to one of these units!

Remember what the holiday season is really all about — giving, caring, helping, sharing. Do your part to support our troops in a way they can really appreciate.

Have You Sent a Package?

If you’ve sent a care package to a unit using Any Soldier or a similar organization, I’d love to hear from you. What was your experience? Please let us know by adding a Comment to this post. Please don’t use this space to share information about sites similar to the Xerox-sponsored site mentioned above. They don’t impress me and I think our troops deserve a lot more sacrifice on our part — time, effort, and even a bit of money — than these “free card” sites could ever offer.

Support Our Troops

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Some rants regarding yellow ribbons.

They started appearing about a year ago on cars, vans, and trucks all over the U.S., just about the same time the flags finally disappeared. Those “yellow ribbon” stickers or, in some cases, magnets. You know the kind. They look like a looped yellow ribbon and most of them say “Support Our Troops.” Some variations include the red, white, and blue models, some of which include stars and stripes. They’re all over the place and frankly, it bugs me.

Why does it bug me? Well, let’s take a moment to think about yellow ribbons and what they represent. The first historical reference to yellow ribbons that I can think of was in the pop song from the 70s, “Tie a Yellow Ribbon” by Tony Orlando and Dawn. The song was the tale of an inmate who was soon to be released. He was writing to his girlfriend, wanting to know if she still loved him. He instructed her to:

“Tie a yellow ribbon

’round the old oak tree

It’s been three long years,

do you still want me?”

(You can get all the lyrics here.)

In this instance, the yellow ribbon was used as a signal to tell him whether he was still wanted at home, whether he should bother getting off the bus. The song has a happy ending. Not only is there one yellow ribbon there, but there’s a hundred yellow ribbons. She evidently really wanted him back.

Move forward a few years. In November 1979, Iranian militants storm the U.S. Embassy in Terhan and take about 70 Americans hostage. The “Iranian Hostage Crisis,” as it came to be known, lasts 444 days. During that time, Penelope Laingen, the wife of one of the hostages, tied a yellow ribbon around a tree at her home. Like ribbon in the song, Mrs. Laingen’s ribbon expressed her desire to have her husband come home. Soon there were yellow ribbons on trees all over the country. The ribbons stayed up until the hostages were released.

Now here’s my beef. In both of these instances, the yellow ribbon signifies a desire to bring someone who is away back home where he/she is loved and wanted. Support our troops was not the message.

I get angry when I see those ribbons. To me, they’re just another sign of the American public’s “follow the leader” mentality. Some marketing genius decided that yellow ribbon stickers that say “Support Our Troops” could sell. Some people bought them. Other people said, “Hey, I want to support the troops, too. I’ll buy a yellow ribbon and put it on my minivan.” Thus, a movement based on some money-making scheme is born. And the American public is too ignorant to realize that the symbol of the yellow ribbon has nothing to do with supporting troops.

The Chinese manufacturers of these ribbons are laughing all the way to the bank.

I’m not the only one who feels this way. In researching this entry, I stumbled across this article with comments. Could it be that I’m actually part of a group of people who think the same way? Wow.

What does a yellow ribbon mean to me? Bring our troops home. Those people are risking (and losing) their lives to fight an illegitimate war, one that we have no business fighting. Bring them home. If I had a yellow ribbon on my car, that’s what it would say. Unfortunately, you can’t buy a ribbon with that message. It isn’t a popular message and it just won’t sell.

The president’s efforts to impose a democratic government on the people of Iraq isn’t any more right than the old Soviet Union forcing communism among neighboring countries. Yes, we Americans believe in democracy and it seems to work for us, but is it right for all countries? Is it right for us to force it on a country that might not be ready for it? And while we’re discussing what’s right and wrong, is it right for us to promote women’s rights in a country where women have a traditional role that is often reinforced by religion?

Why are we trying to turn Iraqis into Americans? This absolutely reeks of what the “missionaries” did in Africa and South America, converting indigenous people into Christians when they were perfectly happy with their own religious beliefs. But rather than religion, we’re pushing politics. Oddly enough, the biggest supporters of this war are the conservative “Christians” that backed George W. Bush in last year’s election. Is there another agenda? One that goes beyond politics? What will be we pushing next?

I’m American and I’m patriotic. If an invading force came into this country and tried to make us change, I’d be one of the people with a stockpile of weapons, fighting to drive out or kill the invaders. But I can’t support a war that I feel was waged as a poorly planned publicity stunt. And I won’t be putting a “Support Our Troops” yellow ribbon on any of my cars.

But do you want to know what bothers me most about the yellow ribbons? It’s that some of them are magnetic. That means they can be easily removed when this war is over, stored in a safe place, and reapplied when the next war starts. Now that’s thinking ahead.

September 27, 2011 Update: Unfortunately, this blog post — which is SIX YEARS OLD, for Pete’s sake! — was linked to on a conspiracy theory Web site. Inappropriate comments have begun to be submitted. Rather than waste my day moderating this kind of silliness, I’ve shut down comments. Move along folks, there’s nothing new to see here.