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Home  News News Tramps For Troops: A Post-Season Analysis
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Tramps For Troops: A Post-Season Analysis |
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Written by bigpig
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Wednesday, 03 March 2004 |
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Page 1 of 2 FMeekins sent us this: "Since the tragedy of September 11, 2001, Americans have exhibited a renewed sense of patriotism and love of country. This sentiment often manifests in a profound admiration and respect for the armed forces of the United States.
As such, most conscientious citizens are reluctant to criticize any policy or charitable effort undertaken in the name of honoring the military. However, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, and even these gestures must be subject to the eye of scrutiny so as to prevent the denigration of American values, honor, and institutions...." Read the rest...
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Since the tragedy of September 11, 2001, Americans have exhibited a renewed sense of patriotism and love of country. This sentiment often manifests in a profound admiration and respect for the armed forces of the United States.
As such, most conscientious citizens are reluctant to criticize any policy or charitable effort undertaken in the name of honoring the military. However, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, and even these gestures must be subject to the eye of scrutiny so as to prevent the denigration of American values, honor, and institutions.
In September at the kickoff of the football season, the National Football League ---- with the blessings of the Pentagon ---- sponsored a concert on the National Mall to honor the military with the Capitol serving as a backdrop. One would think such an auspicious occasion would require entertainment of the utmost dignity reflecting the solemnity of the venue hosting the event or the respect due to those organizers claimed to be honoring.
But instead of marching bands or performers with class such as The Statler Brothers or Cristy Lane offering up patriotic melodies in honor of God and country, some of the nation’s most hallowed ground was despoiled by burlesque behavior more suited to the ghettos and slums found in shadier sections of the Federal City. Foremost among these reprobates ranked Aerosmith and Britney Spears.
The phrase “sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll” has become such a cliche that we often think performers adhering to this credo really aren’t as bad as such a characterization would have us believe. In reality, however, the debauchery of these nihilists transcends most forms of decadence within the experiential framework of normal Americans.
The “exploits” of Aerosmith are something that might make even Ted Kennedy blush. Whether for or against, one has to admit that the war on drugs has enunciated a strong position as to the deleterious nature of these elicit compounds as reflected in the comprehensive punitive statutes addressing the matter. Interesting, then, that those who would otherwise probably be rotting in prison if not for their notoriety are granted the privilege to parade before us as if worthy of our adulation by the very same oligarchs bearing down their rule upon the rest of us.
Frankly, someone should have tipped off Capitol Hill Police since, in all likelihood, members of Aerosmith were probably stoned or in possession of drugs while in the Rotunda’s very shadow. It would not have been out of character.
According to one website website cataloging the bands appalling behavior, these tripped-out troubadours regularly conceal apothecarial contraband within their clothing and microphone sleeves so that their beloved drugs will be on hand during concerts. One member has even placed lines of cocaine atop the amplifiers so he could snort between songs. Often band members are so intoxicated they either have to be helped out on stage, held up while on stage, and helped taken off stage on top of having no idea where they even are.
If the NFL claims it invited this band to play at the Capitol because of the profound respect these minstrels possess for the American people and the principles we live by, league commissioners are more out of it than these potheads. Aerosmith has in the past passed liquor among the audience since they found few things as humorous as puking fans. If that’s how they feel about the halfwits making them millionaires, just think what manner of contempt they have for the rest of us --- even possibly those in the military.
Aerosmith’s admiration for its listeners is only surpassed by its respect for the concept of private property. In Japan, the band trashed a dressing room after being given turkey cold-cuts instead of left on the bone as they requested. Guess the hired help needed to be kept in line.
However, the reader should not go away thinking these musicians to be total anarchists. These level-headed realists live by the sensible standard that nothing should be thrown through a television larger than the set itself.
Some might wonder why I am writing about a concert held nearly half a year ago. Apart from the fact that like most of my fellow cyberscribes I don’t make a million dollars a year for these commentaries so I toil away my days at alternative forms of labor, Britney Spears is as much a skank today as when she cavorted about the stage way back in the olden days of September ‘03 in shorts covering up less than most people’s underwear. But you don’t have to take my word for it as Washington Post media critic Tom Shales wrote of Miss Britney’s exhibitionism, “When they weren’t being groped or fondled by her, dancers helped Spears strip her pants off, revealing a bikini-like black bottom for her second number. They even helped straighten out the...shorty shorts so that they didn’t reveal to much. Or maybe so that they did.”
Some of this strumpets devotees might argue that her risque performances in no way reflect her personal character. Even if such a specious claim could at one time be substantiated, it clearly no longer holds in light of her drunken Las Vegas shenanigans that culminated in her record-long marriage borne of her deep abiding love for her temporary spouse and her inspirational devotion to the institution of holy matrimony.
Hardly the epitome of wholesome American womanhood worthy of the honor of serenading the members of the armed forces of this great Republic. When Bob Hope went on USO tour, at least the broads in swimsuits stood there like they had some class.
At the conclusion of the pre-season concert, President Bush remarked that football “celebrates the values that makes our country strong.” Ideally, that would be so. However, at this point in our nation’s decline it might be more accurate to say that the spectacle surrounding the game is a glorification of the decay eating away at our culture.
Janet Jackson’s breast didn’t pop in from out of nowhere for all to see. Try as they might to deny it, NFL officials set this ball into play early in the season and was as much the outcome of what transpired over the previous fifteen weeks or whatever the number is as the effort needed to win any team the privilege to compete in this coveted sporting event.
Copyright 2004 by
Frederick B. Meekins
The American WorldView Dispatch
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