I tried to post something this last week, but I was busy because Ann went to Dallas for a conference and I finally caught the virus Ann had. I took Friday off since I had a 101 degree fever. That reminds me, I need to turn in my CTO at work. I think I was going to post something about an interview from Sir Charles Barkeley I read, but I couldn't put my thoughts together well. Now something else has come up. Something I feel very strongly about.
Let me give you the background.
My mom sends me emails. I love my mom and some of the things she sends are funny. This one however was a video about a serious topic. I should attach it here so you can see it for yourself.
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Here is the reply I was going to send to my mom, but decided to put it out on the blog.
well, yes I would notice that is was made by a beer company. If it was a non profit that made that commercial it would have been soooo much more meaningful. Yet again, the corporate world has insidiously positioned itself to pluck the heart strings of the America by making such a video. And then people shamelessly forwarding this around the internet like a virus only propagate the hype.
During that commercial I, probably like everyone else, started to have the hair on my arms tingling. I am honored by the sacrifices these people have made. I think of my older brother who went away for his tour and lost his home life.
But really, who doesn't think the troops are doing a good job? this crap about "support the troops" was a rallying cry so no one scrutinized what was happening over there. $12 billion in cash disappeared. KBR raping an employee, then imprisoning her, then hiding the incriminating medical evidence. (It turns out there may have been more than one such instance and these women are just now coming forward.)
Hired mercenaries are the second largest force on the ground in Iraq. And they don't have to abide by ANY laws. They claim that they are neither under Iraq NOR American rule and we are paying them 10 times what we pay our soldiers to do the same job. I would like to see a commercial like this made about the lawlessness of the mercenaries. People would be outraged
that's it. While commercials like this are nice and make you feel good, I think it makes people forget about the real travesty which is our military activity in the middle east.
4 comments:
Well, for Pete's sake (whoever HE is). The reason I forwarded this was not because of the incidious corporate world tugging at our heartstrings or whatever intellectual language you want to call it. I sent it because it reminded me of the time we met Craig at the airport when he returned from Saudi Arabia. I remember the feelings of pride for my son and his platoon, the feeling of relief that he came back alive, and the knowledge that he had served our country. I didn't even notice that this one was sponsored by a beer company. Now - does forwarding this commercial make me some sort of lemming who just follows the crowd and does what they do? Nope. In my opinione, it makes me a simple, proud mother who saw a wonderful reaction to some soldiers returning to their home. And when it brought back some pleasant memories, I wanted to share those feelings with others. If that makes me stupid for forwarding such trivia, then so be it. What comments like yours WON'T make me do is stop sending things that I appreciate. Not all of us read deep meanings into everything. We just enjoy them for what we get out of them and let it go. Maybe you should, too.
how do we know they were coming home? maybe they were leaving...
We don't know. And it doesn't matter. : ) The whole idea of the commercial was to say "Thank You" to the soldiers - coming or going, they are doing what they believe to be right. I abhor the war and everything about it, but I congratulate those who serve in the armed forces in whatever capacity.
I think my initial reaction was based on the fact the NO ONE in the chain of emails actually made these kind of comments about how proud they were, they were letting the video do the talking. Also, the subject was "best commercial ever - keep it going". this made me think, again, of sheeples. Put a comment in when forwarding, edit out the last 3 seconds of the commercial and call it...um...I....don't know: a video.
I just think forwarding these types of emails without thought and a wee bit of consideration to the recipients is...not cool. Yes, we are all proud of the soldiers. Do we need to be reminded of it in a commercial being spread virally through the internet? Or could we really show our appreciation by buying each and every one of the soldiers a house when they are done?
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