Tis The Season For War Profiteering

On September 11th, 2001, thousands of innocents were killed. Office workers. Delivery boys. Moms and dads, brothers and sisters. Lost forever. This was an act of evil. America rightly decided that we would not allow the perpetrators of this mass murder go free. And yet…

There are people in America almost as evil as these terrorists. Specifically, the people who hate America so much, who hate those innocent victims so much that they are willing to PROFIT from this tragedy. It is almost unimaginable.

Starting the day after Thanksgiving and running until December 31st you can "videotape your holiday wishes and messages of support for the extraordinary men and women serving overseas in the United States military" at any Circuit City store. Further, "some of these messages will be broadcast on CBS prime time television and copies will be provided to the U.S.O. and Armed Forces Network so that they may be shown to our military personnel abroad." Can you imagine the depths of evil that it takes to capitalize on an American tragedy AND whore our troops overseas in the service of Circuit City? These "messages" on CBS are COMMERCIALS. When I first heard about this I almost fell over. I saw the first message on Sunday. I actually cried.

On Sunday I also saw a commercial for the Discover card. Every time you use your card, Discover will "make a donation to America's relief efforts, until we reach our goal of $5 million. Every purchase, every cash advance, every balance transfer counts—and everyone benefits, thanks to you." Note that Discover doesn’t reveal how much they will give for each purchase. Also note the hint of a threat. Clearly, if you choose to use Visa or MasterCard, you might as well be stealing from the victims. Even the charities are kept secret. But the worst part is that there is a cap on donations. So, even if you really recruited all your friends to use Discover exclusively, they still aren’t going to give any more money.

I love my country. I believe in the constitution, in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In coming together in times of trouble. I believe in democracy. I believe in the promise of America, a level playing field, due process.

I have never been more ashamed to be an American. Sure, reading about Vietnam and later Guatemala and El Salvador I felt bad. And when Reagan admitted selling arms to the same terrorists that held America hostage for 444 days, blew up two embassies, and killed 263 United States Marines I was very, very ashamed. But this feels bigger.

And it’s not just Circuit City and Discover. GM has been running ads for months clearly implying that buying a GM car will help America. Perhaps there will be fewer Mexican terrorists if they keep their jobs in GM’s Mexican factories? I went to Burger King the other day, and I could buy a decal that featured a bastardized American Flag and the words God Bless America September 11, 2001." As if that wasn’t bad enough, the sign advertising the sticker said that "all net proceeds" would go to the Red Cross. Net proceeds. Burger King cares so much about America that it is not willing to shell out 5 cents for a sticker. And don’t get me started about the Red Cross.

I don’t understand it. Nobody is asking the rich to give back their tax cut. The airlines take our tax money and lay people off anyway. The insurance companies take our tax money and jack up their rates. Can you imagine? Imagine owning an insurance company. You take all this money from people, and then you get the money back from the government if something bad happens. Now that’s a business plan!

I’m tired and angry. People are being thrown out of work left and right, so we’re CUTTING taxes on corporate profits. There will be no pump priming from the federal government. States are cutting spending. Is this America?

It is time for America to come together to defeat this enemy of ours. It is time to take a stand against terror, to stand up for justice, to sacrifice, to pray for the victims and their families. It is not the time for war profiteering. It is not the time to steal from and use innocent victims as ad copy, as a lure to lower prices on consumer electronics, as a threat. Support the victims. Don’t patronize businesses that trade on human pain and fear. Merry Christmas. And May God bless the United States of America.