Fifteen years ago I got sent to Toronto to shoot a package of eight commercials. In the middle of the shoot, for about one minute, the director shut down the set and all went quiet. It was Veteran's Day and we paused for a minute and thought about our war dead.It was solemn and real, meaningful and heartfelt.
Monday in Amerika, the land of the fee and the home of the craven, is Memorial Day. Over 4000 young Amerikans and close to one-million Iraqis have already died thanks to our trumped-up invasion of a sovereign state.
According to the ads in today's New York Times, will memorialize them via the following: "The Great Sandal Sale," "The Big Brown Bag Sale," the "Free Chaise Event," the "Memorial Day Weekend Event," and "Hot Deals 4 U."
The pusillanimous and hypocritical Bush-Cheney Junta censors the images we see of carnage. The complicit news media prefers or conspires to air gossip, jiggle, smut and trivia. Please take a moment to read the thoughts of Pulitzer-winner Timothy Egan:http://egan.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/the-invisible-war/?em&ex=1211688000&en=dffd0e40bd223aa9&ei=5070
In his NYTimes article titled "The Invisible War," Egan points out the following facts:
*This war has lasted longer than any other American war save Viet-Nam.
*The war will cost us more than $3 trillion. More than any war but WW2. More than double the cost (inflation adjusted) of WW1 and ten-times the cost of the first Gulf War.
*President Bush has sacrificed by giving up playing golf during the war. “I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf,” he said last week. “And I think playing golf during a war sends the wrong signal.”
*In a Veteran's Administration email,subject line "Shh!" (I am not making this up) a top official asked: “Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see,” Katz wrote, in a note not meant for the general public. “Is this something we should address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles upon it?”
It goes on an on.
Go buy some sandals and have a barbecue.
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PS. The photo above is a mosaic of our Leader made up of photos of a small bits of a small bit of our war dead.