Dressed up for war

The front page of the Old Navy advertisement section was a picture of three multiculturally diverse children about 9 years old. Frozen by the camera in cheery dance moves, all three anxious back-to-schoolers wore camoflauge. Hands on their hips, smiles on their faces, their pants were festooned with either blue, green, or yes, pink camoflauge and one student, the girl in pink, even waved an American flag in one hand. Their new backpacks were camoflauge and their shoes, normal in color, eerily resembled army boots.


Two days ago an angry American Muslim shot 5 people (all women) and killed another at a Jewish fundraising center in downtown Seattle. We happened to be on our way through the city to another destination, but had to reroute our trip because the cars were backed up for miles along 4th avenue after the police closed off 2nd and 3rd avenues. We made it to our event and then, on the way home about 3 hours later, we drove back through town, down 2nd avenue, but we only got so far before we saw the flashing lights of a road blockade. A block before the road closed, we turned to take an alternate road home, past a trendy bar/nightclub where hundreds of 20-somethings stood outside the bar sipping their cocktails, laughing, flirting, and playfully nudging each other.


Yesterday, the US "urged" Israel to agree to a bombing halt for 48 hours after an Israeli missle "accidentally" killed over 50 Lebanonese civilians, most of them childen.

I wonder if they were out buying camoflauge back-to-school clothes?

I am angry, too. As angry perhaps, as the man who shot those women though I would never hurt or shoot anyone, let alone own a gun. My anger is more internal though when we drove passed the drunken nightclubbers a block from the shooting, I wanted to scream from my car what idiots they were, how staying perpetually drunk was exactly what this administration was hoping for from the American constituency -- unclear, foggy-minded, and therefore loyal by apathy.

But I didn't say anything. Instead, I just boiled, slowly, with anger.

When Ann showed me the cover of the Old Navy ad she said, tongue in cheek, "Do you think war has affected us?"

Not enough, apparently. Not enough.