Wednesday, 7/7/04 - 02:16
Usually when we're in L.A. on the Fourth of July, we sit out amid the wild fennel and dogs' droppings on the bluffs by Ted's house, and from there we can watch three or four far away fireworks displays, ranging up the coast as far as Malibu. This year, as a fan of fireworks, I insisted that we go some place less sucky. So Ted and I saw the fireworks at Pali High, which is where Ted's family went to see them every year when he was little.
In the past you had to pay to sit inside the sports field, but not this year. Occidental Petroleum sponsored the whole thing, the most jingoistic spectacle I've ever been a part of. I've never even been to a fireworks show with a sound system; this one began with at least 20 minutes of speeches that we couldn't really hear, though we could hear them well enough to note with approval that the fireworks cut off the rhetoric prematurely. The spectacle itself was nice, especially the golden sparkling cascades, which are always my favorites. The problem was that the whole thing was accompanied by blaring patriotic music -- they played "Proud to be an American" twice, as well as a lot of martial music. No other songs were repeated, so it's not just that they looped. It's that they wanted to play "Proud to be an American" twice. Between songs there were recorded statements along the lines of "America's oil companies proudly support the war in Iraq" -- though Ted notes they never once said the word Iraq -- and "God bless the emergency services for protecting our freedom," while the fireworks kept flowering overhead.
It was surreal. It was like living in propaganda on the T-V. The content suggests that it was a right wing piece, but the fact that it was put on by an oil company suggests that it would be more at home in a left wing depiction of what's wrong with the right wing. If I were actually watching it on television I'd be able to sit back, mute it, watch the thing in closed caption, and heckle. For instance, much as I'm grateful that we have firemen and police, I'm fairly certain their jobs aren't directly a matter of "protecting freedom," and certainly not when you compare them to protestors. If Ted or I were feeling particularly hecklesome, we'd pause the whole thing. The propaganda didn't pause.
I don't think monetary gain via oil revenues was a major motivation for the war in Iraq, but even so -- I feel dirty. What were they thinking, sponsoring jingoism in West L.A.? I was in such a bad mood by the time we got home that I didn't even want to burn last year's Christmas tree in the driveway.
Long live Diaryland!
The five most recent entries:
More Naval Gazing - Saturday, 8/13/05
Anniversary Diving - Friday, 8/12/05
Academic Tip of the Week - Tuesday, May. 17, 2005
How to tell a Midwesterner - Sunday, 4/24/05
Academic Feelings - Thursday, 4/21/05
Ted's most recent entry:
Monday, May 12