Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Wrong Ribbons

I know everyone and their mother has seen the ribbon magnets on the backs of cars that support our troops. Some are camoflauge, some are yellow, some are red, white and blue. I don't know which came first, the concept of the yellow ribbon around the oak tree or the Tony Orlando and Dawn song, but we're getting out of control.

For one, any ribbon that says anything political is just wrong. It's against the noble idea of supporting countrymen and women who are risking their lives for the mission.

Two, I saw a ribbon today that said, "Support our Troopers." I'm not a fan of cops. It's not that individual policemen are bad, it's things like this. The idea of the yellow ribbon is to signify that someone is gone and we want them to return home. If you come home everything, that's defeating the purpose. Another thing that gets me about policemen is when they call you up and ask you to support the Fraternal Order of Police. Unless I've misunderstood, that's their union. Support yourselves. You attack us into giving money to your union by making us think we're doing this great thing to support law enforcement when really we're doing nothing of the sort. It won't get you better cruisers, equipment or technology. It will get your lobbyists more clout in the state houses and capitols and it will get you more power at the bargaining table.

Back to the ribbons. If you've got a yellow ribbon on your car, God bless you. I don't. Not because I don't support our troops because I certainly do, but because I don't like yellow. Call me fickle. But if you have a ribbon that does anything other than support our troops, then take it off and understand why it's wrong.

1 comment:

Orelinde_03 said...

Travis, I applaude you for your comments here. If every organization, every activist, every government division came up with these ribbons, it wouldn't hold the impact and signifigance it is supposed to.