John Cory: Band-Aids, Bullets, and Broken Hearts

[WilliamPitt]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090304Z.shtml

Band-Aids, Bullets, and Broken Hearts
By John Cory
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Thursday 02 September 2004

It must have been a proud moment for Johnson & Johnson, watching their product passed around opening night at the GOP convention: Band-Aids with painted purple hearts and snarky comments about self-inflicted wounds. Who says conservatives don't have a sense of humor? This was funny stuff.

I wonder how funny that Band-Aid stunt was to the nearly 7,000 troops who have lost legs, and arms, and eyes, and suffered other mutilations in the Iraq War, and now wear a real Purple Heart. I'll bet they rolled around in their wheelchairs and fell off their crutches in roaring laughter. Can these GOP Band-Aids reattach limbs?

I'll bet they were laughing in Idaho, too. Especially Tom Titus, former Army Ranger and Vietnam vet with two Purple Hearts. On Monday he received another Purple Heart, for his son Brandon, killed in Iraq. A father and son, both veterans, both with Purple Hearts, except the father had to bury his son. Is there a funny Band-Aid for death?

...more...

[democratreformed]

1. I read this yesterday. It is very touching.

How can that band-aid stunt not destroy them?

[mcar]

2. This is wonderful

Well said!

[PA Democrat]

3. John Cory has done some very powerful writing for truthout

He hit the ball out of the park, once again.

I guess the Republicans don't see the cognitive dissonance of claiming the label of "compassionate conservatives" while simultaneously ripping open the wounds of war.

[gasperc]

4. great story, here's the letter I sent out to CNN, NPR, local media

Part of it was inspired by your writings on the "missing" WMDs


I was very troubled and disturbed this morning to learn that many delegates at the GOP convention are wearing purple bandages with purple hearts on them. Nearly 7000 soldiers have been wounded in Iraq and over 1000 have died. This band-aid mocking the purple heart is the most appalling show of disrespect I have ever seen in my lifetime. How can anyone hold up a sign stating "We support our troops" while simultaneously mocking those soldiers that have been killed or wounded in Iraq? The soldiers in Iraq are brave simply by having the courage to be in Iraq. Dozens of attacks occur on a daily basis and more than two Americans, on average, are dying per day. Americans are coming home wounded or dead, and whether they got their arm blown off by an RPG or scratched by the shrapnel that killed their buddy, no American should mock their bravery or courage. Political expediency does not justify the mockery of our nation's soldiers. The ends do not justify the means. No weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq. No factories or labs that may have made WMDs have been found. No trucks or barrels which would need to number in the thousands(to equal the claim in Mr. Bush's SOTU speech) have been found buried someplace in Iraq and no evidence of where thousands of trucks or barrels are buried have been found, despite the inhumane torture of thousands of Iraqis. Our neighbors, our sons, our daughters, our friends, our souls are in Iraq. They are surviving in unbearable heat, they are being wounded and killed on a daily basis and they are fighting for the cause of democracy, or so we're told, in the Middle East. They were sent to forcibly topple the government of Saddam Hussein and recover and secure WMDs so that they do not get into the hands of terrorists. It has been over 18 months since the invasion, the old government has been dissolved, no WMD's have been recovered and yet our soldiers continue to fight and die in Iraq. These are very brave men, all of the wounded deserve a Purple Heart and to those that feel compelled to mock the medal, one question, Have you no shame?

Regards,
Gasper

[Myrina]

5. Fax the story and the pics to J&J

I looked closely at the 'Kerry Bands' on Metrospy.com and they are a clear rip-off of the J&J 'Band Aid' and packaging.

Let the lawyers at 'em !! :)

[WilliamPitt]

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[WilliamPitt]

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[ibegurpard]

8. Good

I'd really like to see this issue kept alive.

[mzmolly]

9. I hope Kerry will renounce this in Ohio tonight, calling them on their

disgusting display. :grr:

[AP]

10. Someone should print up George Bush (or 'W') Bandaids, and the message...

...should be that the world has real problems -- that Iraq is just a subset of those bigger problems -- and that all Bush offers is a band-aid.

What John Kerry offers is a total program. Bush is the Bandaid and John Kerry is the treatment+insurance+hospital+doctor=really treating the problem and preventing it from happening again.

[WilliamPitt]

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