Recently, I saw again the heart-wrenching story of Courtney in the Atlanta airport. A group of 30-40 US Marines head to their gate, the entire airport erupts into cheers and applause. This poor girl, Courtney, asks a Marine (only 22 years old, himself) to give her father, long in absentia fighting for democracy in Afghanistan, a hug from her. The Marine pretends, with other Marines, to talk to her father via the walkie-talkie and returns to give the girl a kiss on the cheek and kind words.
Touching, to be sure, and yes, the heart beats with the red blood of God and country. Skeptical of all things poorly written and overwhelmingly patriotic, I typed "daughter soldier airport" in to the almighty and omniscient Google. This, of course, returned myriad reposts of the aforementioned story with all sorts of calls-to-action affixed to the end, suggesting one should pray for our soldiers every day, salute the flag, read the bible, condemn homosexuals in the military, and all sorts of other bizarre requests.
The interesting thing I began to notice was that Courtney's father was alternately a Marine, a member of the Royal Air Force, the Canadian or the Australian Military and this heart wrenching scene was witnessed in Georgia, London, Ontario and Melbourne. Each email was exactly the same; exceptions being the location, rank and length of service in the military. This casts the entire story in an even more dubious light than its status as a chain email. This means there are two possible situations:
This was a true store being capitalized upon to drum emotion support for other nation's soldiers being marketed as an actual event.
This is entirely a work of fiction being used to drum emotional support for our soldiers being marketed as an actual event.
To argue the first situation, isn't it possible that this actually happened? Of course, it's within the realms of possibility that these young Marines, already feeling distant from their families, would ease a suffering child's mind. Such a heartwarming and patriotic story, then, would certainly be exported to other nations to swell English, Canadian and Australian hearts with the same pride and love of God and country that Americans feel.
However, if this were a true story, there'd more than likely be photographic evidence or some sort of credit given to a date/time it occurred. A group of weeping Marines, united in the pain they share with this poor girl is a prime photographic opportunity, probably worthy of the cover of Leatherneck. Also, without a date attribution, sort of a general "I saw this in Atlanta" statement, who's to say?
I postulate that certain details were left intentionally vague so as no challenge could be made to the validity of the stories, pointing us to the second situation. The anonymous (of course) author speaks vaguely about the airport, a group of Marines and other myriad foggy details, but manages somehow to know the little girl's name is Courtney and she's there with her mother and the specifics of her father's length of service in Afghanistan is a red flag of tremendous proportions.
Do not read this as "I hate America." I don't. Nor do I harbor ill-will towards any of our service men (though, as an aside, living so close to myriad military bases and constantly hearing dick measuring and witnessing fist fighting at the local bars, and of course the police reports of Marines eluding police officers on their motorcycles, beating their wives, or raping, dismembering and burning fellow service women, it'd be easy to develop feelings of ill-will, it's important to understand that the baby needn't be thrown out with the bath water). I hate, instead, this faux-patriotism drummed up by works of fiction designed specifically to prey upon mankind's natural social instincts for empathy. I hate worse that these works of fiction are presented as recounts of true events.
Patriotism and respect for service members should be a part of everyday life. Though I don't always stop and think "I wonder what a soldier's doing right now?" I am respectful of those who've served and do so currently. My grandfather and great-uncle served in World War II, I had two great-uncles in Korea, family friends died in Vietnam, I've lost friends (mentally and physically) to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; these sacrifices are beyond the scope of anything I am brave enough to even attempt. To tarnish their sacrifice and distill the ideals they stood for in a chain email that Nicholas Sparks may've written on the shitter about Courtney at the airport, even for the right reasons, is ignorant and distasteful.
That took a deal longer than I expected to fully explain, the actual argument I wished to make was against a Facebook "event" I've recently been asked to "attend." Thankfully, it occurs every Friday and "attendance" doesn't actually require me to go anywhere. It's called "Red Friday." Apparently, you're only an American if you wear red on Fridays to show support for the troops.
Problems with this are many. I wear red pretty frequently. I'm sure a lot of other people do, as well. Sometimes, it's on a Friday. Was I supporting the troops that day? More than likely, no; I was probably going to the grocery to pick up some beer or laying in the back yard drinking a beer, falling asleep to a Grateful Dead album. It's rather inefficient to do such a commonplace thing to show your support.
"Breath if you like the welfare system." You fucking communist.
There are things that could work better, I suppose. Certainly, my argument against this "Red Friday" is not the day itself, its implementation or its message. I am against the idea that it perpetuates the "Us-vs-Them" mindset far too commonplace in America. The invitation I received seem to imply that people not wearing red on Fridays did not support the troops, by extension despise America's ideals and, worst of all, were not afraid of Jesus.
I like to think that America's ideals are such that one not need to wear red or fear Jesus to be a productive and proactive citizen. This day, in fact, seems to me to read only as a ploy to drum up war support (Ironically, this all started during the invasion of Iraq in 2004). Let's face it, this doesn't read as a support the troops day banner, it reads as a "Support the Iraq War." The warriors are not the war, the war does not define the warrior.
Besides, this is America. You can't tell me what to wear.
