Profiting off of Terrorism

You can see it everywhere you look, and with good reason. It is noticeable in the flags that hang in the windows of apartments and dorm rooms, in the pins that are worn on bags or shirts of students around campus or the flags that fly from car antennas.\n It's patriotism, tried and true, and with the actions that our country has been involved in during the past month and more, it is definitely deserving. One might even argue that this patriotism is something that should be more evident year-round, not just when our country or troops are in danger. After all, we have lots to be proud of, but that is a topic for another column. \nThe unfortunate thing associated with all this patriotism is how you can't escape it in certain areas that perhaps you should. You go to Kroger to get some food, and you see stands selling American flag shirts or flags themselves. You turn on the TV and see commercial after commercial talking about "keeping the dream alive," which as far as I have been able to decipher means keeping the pockets of U.S. companies lined with your money. It even goes so far as to the lighter that you pick up at Bigfoot for your smokes that says "God Bless America." \nWhat appears to me to be happening is the corporate giants of America hoping to turn an almighty dollar on these tragedies, and it makes me sick. \n Now, I know what you are thinking, "Does this guy know he just contradicted himself in those two paragraphs?" Yes, I'm fully aware of what I wrote. There is a slight yet important difference in my arguments, one that prevents me from looking like a fool. I do believe we should stand up for our beliefs. \n While I personally am standing behind our troops and their efforts, I commend all our camp buddies out there in Dunn Meadow for standing up for their beliefs as well, no matter how cold they are getting. In times of war, you have to stand strong for what you believe in, and patriotism goes hand in hand with this thought. \nThe part of it all that I don't like is how this patriotism seems to be taken too far and used as a marketing tool for those big businesses that we all know and love.\nThe attempts to capitalize on the current state of the United States and feed off of patriotism to get people to purchase the goods being peddled is the lowest of the low, in my opinion. All it took was me seeing one GM commercial telling the viewing public to keep American ideals strong followed by the sentence "keep America rolling" to make me sick. In not so many words, they are saying that by purchasing that new car, you are doing your part to help our country. It's disgusting. I appreciate the need for our economy to be helped right now because a recession needs to be prevented, but to take advantage of patriotism as a selling tool to me seems to be taking it a step too far. \nThis whole event brings to mind an old "South Park" episode with the underpants gnomes. They had a multi-step process toward making money that went something like "Step 1, collect underpants. Step 3, profit." (The joke was they didn't know what step 2 was.) I just keep imagining the faceless heads of big business sitting in their offices going "Step 1, war starts. Step 3, profit." Only they know their step 2: Take advantage of patriotism.