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8.21.2004
Chicago Tribune : Anti-Kerry vet not there that day: Many of us wanted to put it all behind us?the rivers, the ambushes, the killing. Ever since that time, I have refused all requests for interviews about Kerry's service?even those from reporters at the Chicago Tribune, where I work. Who to believe huh? Is it any wonder that most voters stay home? I'm of a mixed mind about all this. On the one hand you got people saying "Kerry ONLY served four months" while the other candidate never even made it to Vietnam, even checking a box stating a preference for not going. But hell, I wouldn't want to go either. I would have taken the same approach as Bush. I mean, who wants to go someplace where people are shooting at you, willingly? But these are the same people that are so gung ho to glorify war in the first place. You can't cast a sideways glance at Kerry for chasing some kid down and shooting him when that was his job. That is what war is all about. You try to kill your enemy, which is usually some kid with a gun, sent there by the grownups who see themselves as too valuable to risk their own lives. If I ever met some soldier that relished the idea of gunning down another human being I would think they were psychotic and not a troop that I would want fighting for me. War is an evil that should be avoided if at all possible and only undertaken with serious consideration. There is always the danger that those making the decision to go to war, safely secure away from any actual threat themselves, will be flippant about sending other people off to fight for their own power struggles. And that is why I was troubled about the way that we went about the invasion of Iraq. The shifting rationales and the push for swift action without proper debate should have been a warning sign, and it was to those that were wary. I am in sales, I know the process: closing the sale, appealing to emotions and glossing over the negative details, playing up the positives. Personally I think Colin Powell lost the sale when he went before the United Nations Security Council. I would have walked. Even though you may not ever see yourself doing sales work (I know I didn't, it was an accident really) you should still familiarize yourself with the techniques that will be used against you during the process. Being an informed consumer is not that much different from being an informed citizen. You may or not be surprised by how many of the same marketing techniques used in the marketplace have been retooled for political purposes. Think about your own workplace. How often does the company ever come out and say "Hey, we're going to cut hours, lay off people and cut corners to give our stock a quick boost to keep our shareholders from bolting like scared sheep?" My guess is never. Its always talk about "Core competency", "Focus on the Customer", "Getting Back to Basics". There's never a negative in the corporate world. Its all for the best: making the company stronger. The parallels between workers and soldiers, government and corporate management are scary. I don't think its by accident that the two worlds have become so closely intertwined with former CEO's and business leaders holding high political offices. The lessons learned in one world are applicable in the other. A snowjob is a snowjob. I don't trust my bosses to hold my best interests at heart. Barring those of you that work for small businesses where you have owners that actually DO care about their people, most of us work for larger public entities that have a ladder of priorities that looks something like : 1) Shareholders 2) Management 3) Employees Managers found putting the interests of the employees above those of the shareholders will find their asses out on the street. We get paid for our work only because people revolted against feudalism and slavery ages ago. But don't think that for a moment it isn't without some resentment. But I digress... (Boy is that an understatement!) So we have two candidates that are trying to sell us on the idea that they would be the "strongest" to "protect" us from evil people with guns we probably sold them. Bush says he is the right man because he is not scared to send troops into a ravaged country when he himself once expressed a desire to stay away from combat. Kerry says he will protect us from the swarthy terrorists because he once went and killed some of the evil-doers in our last "War to Save Humanity", even though he now says that it was a bad idea to have done so. Talk about your mixed messages. Take your pick: Kerry is a hero for fighting in Vietnam and for standing up against a war gone bad. Bush is a hero for serving in the TANG and for sending troops to oust the Taliban and Saddam. Kerry is a coward because he only served four months and then turned on his fellow soldiers. Bush is a coward for hiding in the TANG and sending other kids to wars for his own glorification. And you thought picking a used car was bad? |
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