celebrating 50 years of shit

Earlier in the summer I went to Ocean City and saw that every boardwalk shop was selling t-shirts with iron on peace signs. There could be worse fads - especially in an election year I hope everyone remembers which party took us into a pointless war - but I couldn't help but feeling like an old metal head looking at some kid with ac-dc shirt from target. like, i'm glad you like the band - but do you even know who bon scott is?

What I wanted to do was make a flyer that basically told people: "if you're going to go around promoting peace, you better mean it. i was in the streets of dc fighting for peace before you put your yellow ribbon magnet on your s.u.v." I wanted to pass around a pledge card that said, "by advocating for peace today, i vow to advocate for it again tomorrow when war fever again grips the nation." I wanted to get people to promise they'd never buy the war machine's lies ever again. I

Last night, i went to Ocean City again, and it's a good thing I didn't make any flyers or pledge cards because nobody was wearing the shirts. the stores still had them. so i go to wondering - what made the iron-on makers of the world think that people were going to start feeling so strong about ending the war that they'd stop wearing 'hollister' and start wearing something that matter.

Then i saw the answer: a store with a sign that read "celebrate 50 years of the peace sign. 1958-2008." So that was it - the peace sign had nothing to do with peace. It was just another cultural icon from the past that some marketing men thought it was high time to make some money on. As disappointing as it is that people arn't so energized for peace, I'm actually kind of glad people didn't buy into the hype.

So fuck celebration! In the fifty years since the peace sign, American wars have killed millions, maimed even more, and ruined places all over the world. If the fifty years since the peace sign we have fought cold wars, containment wars, wars against communism, wars against drugs, and wars against terror. lbj declared war on poverty, but then the war in vietnam took precedent - and we ultimately surrendered in both.

I'll start celebrating 50 years of the peace sign when I can celebrate 50 years of peace.