Let Them Eat Cake
As many of you know, I work for a large corporation. Like many such corporations, mine is very into the charitable contribution/tax break game, but it also puts a pretty hefty emphasis on encouraging individual fundraising and community involvement. As a result, we employees are always in the midst of some kind of activity, donation drive, fundraising event, etc. We donate food and clothing to the homeless. We march for the cure for breast cancer. And sometimes, like today, we pay $5 for the privilege of wearing jeans to work; the money is then donated to a worthy cause. Today's cause is "Support Our Troops," so the money collected from today's jeans day will supposedly be sent to the soldiers in Iraq.
Thinking about all of this, I couldn't help but be reminded of a bumper sticker that was popular about a decade ago. It said something like, “Wouldn’t it be nice if our schools had all the money they needed, and the government had to hold a bake sale to buy more weapons?”
Looking around at all the jeans and yellow ribbons at work today, I came up with a slogan for a new bumper sticker:
“Wouldn’t it be nice if our troops had all the armor they needed, and the president had to hold a ‘Wear Jeans to Work’ day to pay for his lavish multimillion-dollar inaugural bashes?”
Hmm . . . too long to fit on a sticker, maybe. But a fitting sentiment after the disgusting displays of yesterday.
Thinking about all of this, I couldn't help but be reminded of a bumper sticker that was popular about a decade ago. It said something like, “Wouldn’t it be nice if our schools had all the money they needed, and the government had to hold a bake sale to buy more weapons?”
Looking around at all the jeans and yellow ribbons at work today, I came up with a slogan for a new bumper sticker:
“Wouldn’t it be nice if our troops had all the armor they needed, and the president had to hold a ‘Wear Jeans to Work’ day to pay for his lavish multimillion-dollar inaugural bashes?”
Hmm . . . too long to fit on a sticker, maybe. But a fitting sentiment after the disgusting displays of yesterday.
posted by flipper @ 4:51 PM
2 Comments:
At 9:23 AM,
lulu said…
I find it refreshing to NOT donate but wear jeans anyway. If it's a kid's charity I usually donate. However, I just couldn't bring myself to give $5 to support the troops when literally thousands of my dollars are being vacuumed up by the great suckhole that is the War in Iraq.
And though I certainly sympathize with the troops and their families, and want them alive and home, I can't help but think that going to war was a possibility they knew about when they signed up for the armed forces. Even the National Guard people--am I supposed to feel (overly) bad for them when they even admit that "all" they signed up for was the college money? Recruiters for the armed forces are as sleazy as used car salespeople, and if you don't know that, and don't know that the military is the gang of thugs for corporate interests, that's just...I don't want to say--I'm already feeling a little guilty saying all this.
Kids, don't join the military.
At 10:44 AM,
Sven Golly said…
Speaking as a parent and as another obedient employee of Large Publishing Corp., and knowing on which side my bread is buttered, I am disheartened when those "Support our Stormtroopers" rallying cries go up, and further saddened when all the other obedient employees jump on the bandwagon. For approval? For the denim-textured group-hug, like wearing school colors on game day? For the righteous affirmation of being on the right side, the winning side? Or just for the special privilege of dressing-down because they let us? And, cards on the table, I have self-censored my reactions to most of those calls for public support, weighing the importance of what I have to say against the potential consequences, just like a whole generation of good Germans did.
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