Free Speech, Patriotism, and how Business and Government Leaders Don't Understand Either
For a while there it was considered un-American to have a non-conforming thought. Bill Maher had a non-conforming thought and people wanted his show boycotted and canceled. Sears and FedEx turned their backs to the U.S. Constitution by pulling their ads from the show. Boondocks, a newspaper comic strip, infuriated the public (well, the few who actual read Boondocks) by suggesting that U. S. history began before September 11. That history includes sending over $100,000,000 to Taliban controlled Afghanistan--$43,000,000 being sent just a few months before the September 11th attacks. That history includes the CIA funding the training of Osama bin Laden (although the U.S. government denies that). Caving in to pressure, some newspapers dropped Boondocks or ran less-offensive repeats of the comic strip. NEWSPAPERS! A major benefactor of freedom of the press censored freedom of speech. For shame!
It's not surprising, though. In any national crisis, the second victim is the Bill of Rights: specifically the First, Second, and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution. People try to protect America by abolishing that which defines us as Americans. Just in the last few hours, the United States House of Representatives passed anti-"terrorist" legislation. Critics of the bill say it tramples our speech and privacy rights. In short, I'm in the narrow window of time between speech restriction due to the attacks and speech restriction due to laws enacted which define independent thought as "terrorist activity." If I wait too much longer, I could become a victim of the Bush administrations "war on terrorism." I wouldn't be allowed to point out that it isn't a war on terrorism. If it were a war on terrorism, the Bush administration would have bombed (or, at least, closed) the School of the Americas terrorist training camp at Ft. Benning in Georgia. I know, it's now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, or WHISC. That's because graduates of the School of the Americas have committed such human rights atrocities that the U. S. government needed to change the name for public relations purposes. Until the School of the Americas or WHISC is gone, the United States' so-called war on terrorism will be a complete failure.
Anyway, I concluded that it was okay to speak now. Why? Because September 11th is quickly shifting from a tragedy to a marketing event. Certainly, those heroes in New York City who are sifting through rubble to find loved ones and victims (I call them martyrs as this is a holy war by bin Laden's own admission) and to help heal and rebuild the city and our country. There are many heroes not at ground zero who play a major role in the rescue and clean-up effort. People are preparing food for the workers. People are getting gloves and boots together for the workers. People are even collecting dog food for the pets of people who died in the terrorist strike. Celebrities have had numerous concerts to raise money for the effort. Heroes! All of them. These people understand that this strike against America is a tragedy.
Unfortunately, some businesses are using September 11th as a marketing tool. Businesses are airing commercials and putting ads in newspapers and magazines showing images and pictures of the terrorist strikes. They are showing the United States flag in some ads. Some of them come right out and say, "Be patriotic….shop at our store!" I'm not sure what buying bait specifically at Ernie's Earthworm Emporium (a hypothetical example, by the way) has to do with patriotism. But the message is that if we don't spend our money at that specific business, we are un-patriotic. How ridiculous! Heck! Most of the products in most stores aren't even made in the USA. How dare they try to define patriotism?
Granted, some ads don't mention a specific business. They simply say "Be patriotic…buy stuff." That's okay. We need to get back to being consumers. Unfortunately, a lot of businesses chose not to ride out this burp in America's life. They decided, in this time where we can most use any stability we can get, to downsize their workforce. So we're supposed to buy to be American but thousands (projected to be millions) of American's no longer have the means to buy products. Just today, both Sears and Kodak announced a collective 8900 job layoff. (There's Sears again. What does Sears have against the United States of America?) How do we buy stuff if we're losing our jobs because "profits are down." (Neither Sears nor Kodak experienced third quarter losses. In both cases, profits were simply lower.) Our purchasing power is handcuffed by the very people who need us to purchase.
The American people want to get back to normal. Now, if business and government leaders would ALLOW us to bet back to normal, this country would be fine.
There is HOPE, though. The October 20th, Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports a story about Jim Emison, CEO of Western Petroleum Co. in Eden Prairie. According to the story, he promised his 65 employees that, if they promised to maintain their usual spending habits in October, he'd give each of them $500. The catch is that they have to spend that, too. The employees responded immediately! Well, they WOULD have responded immediately, but they didn't find out until a bit later. You see, when Emison gave the memo to someone to type, that true American took time out from typing to spend the money on tickets to Chicago. After the tickets were purchased, she finished typing the memo and now the folks at Western Petroleum in Eden Prairie are spending their windfall. Bravo!
Jim Emison seems to know something that other business leaders (especially Sears CEO Alan Lacy) and our government leaders don't know: America Rocks! It's a civics lesson all leaders to learn.
Being American is something to be celebrated; it is not something to be discouraged!
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© 2001, Mark Wentz