Pen-Elayne on the Web

Canned Patriotism

I love the smell of sulfur in the morning after fireworks, particularly when I'm still sealed away from it in an air-conditioned apartment.

I'm of two minds about fireworks. Hate the noise, love the sight. Hate that Americans somehow think they own the idea, love that it's explosives used for something other than killing people and destroying things. Watched the Macy's thing last night, mostly with the sound off, but a couple times when I unmuted the TV I noticed sweetened applause. That's right, just like those pledge drives where you hear traditional phone ringing noises in the background, while all the operators are sat at computer terminals wearing headsets (interestingly, in the past couple years a few old phones have been added on-screen to help that illusion along).

I've known for years, ever since attending a Thanksgiving Day parade, that the applause and cheers are faked on that telecast (for one thing, folks in late November weather tend to wear gloves so you wouldn't hear clapping noises even if they did applaud - which, trust me, most don't). But it still caught me by surprise that the applause track mixed into the patriotic-music-and-pithy-recitings track was bogus as well. Like I said, there's a lot to like about fireworks. There's something both elemental and creative about them. They're of ancient origin and yet they're still done all over the world, particularly on New Year's Eve. I used to watch July 4 fireworks growing up in New Jersey, and I remember lots of people ooh'ing and aah'ing and spontaneously applauding. But they didn't yesterday. The audience cutaways (to the people in seats near the cameras - in other words, the ones who would have been the closest to the microphones were the applause real) clearly showed people either waving cheapie giveaway flags or holding kids, not applauding. (In fact, one parent was comforting a particularly distraught youngster whose senses were clearly overwhelmed by it all.) I guess in a country where public support for all sorts of evil policies is manipulated if not downright faked, none of this ought to be too much of a shock.

What did bowl me over was the Travel Channel's countdown of the Top 10 Patriotic Places in the country. Most were the ones you'd expect, and I figure the only quibble people would have with their selection is how high up in the listing they might belong. All but one. The venue that the Travel Channel deemed the most patriotic place in America is... Ground Zero, aka the spot where the World Trade Center once stood. Now, I'm sorry. Ground Zero may be many things - the remnant of a horrid human tragedy whose wounds still cut too deep to fully contemplate, a testament to the folly of our foreign policies contrasted with the bravery of ordinary people, even a reminder of what life in the area was like before the Towers went up and the sun was obscured - but a patriotic place? Whatever happened to the disgust at people trying to use Ground Zero for political purposes because it was so obviously inappropriate? Guess that went out the window with the Republican convention plans for next year.

Lastly, I was sorry to hear that Marvel has cancelled the planned third issue of 411, its miniseries on nonviolence. (See my April 11 review of the first issue and May 17 synopsis of the second). I don't purport to know why they couldn't just publish the finale, but its absence will be deeply felt by at least one appreciative reader.