Conservatives Say, “Wear Red on Fridays”

Wear red?! The following missive arrived the other day in my inbox.

Almost everywhere I go I can see a "Support The Troops" or "Pray for The Troops" magnets and stickers on cars and trucks. I have one myself. Recently I received an email that wanted everyone to do more to show our support for the troops and their mission in Iraq and the war on terror. We can pray and show support by displaying these stickers, but now conservatives are wanted the public to show how unified we are in support of our troops by wearing red every Friday until they come home. I hope that you will participate.

http://newsbyus.com/more.php?id=637_0_1_0_M
by Rob Hood

First, the MSM pulled its scam, whereby states that voted Democrat would be called "blue," and those that voted GOP would be called "red." That was such a transparent ploy to turn history on its head, that I don't understand why the alleged Right didn't immediately beat it back. Ever since then, I've wanted to slug everyone who's ever spoken of "Red State America," whether in a positive or a negative sense. I'm not a Red. And now you want me to wear red, celebrate red? On the one hand, this sounds like GOP boosterism, and on the other, it sounds like the boosters don't know their history. I must be a very old man, if I'm the only one who understands what the hell this "Red State-Blue State" stuff is about. In my childhood, folks used to say, "Better dead than red." Still sounds good to me. And I thought conservatives were supposed to have so much reverence for history. Are we talking about conservatives, or are we really talking about members of the Republican National Committee or editors at National Review? When I was in my twenties, folks still died trying to cross The Wall in East Germany. When I lived Over There -- in the former West Germany -- from ‘80-‘85, and even after I came back, whenever I had the chance, I used to go to West Berlin, so that I could pass through Checkpoint Charlie, my heart in my throat, on a day visa. I recall too what it was like during vacation to drive along the border fence, in the middle of nowhere in Bavaria, and be surveilled at every step of the way by the soldiers on the Other Side. If you ever stopped, got out, and took a look around, they’d take down your license plate, and next time you went to Charlie, they wouldn’t let you through. I know I'm a simpleton, so you needn't bother telling me. All this Red stuff must make sense at some level of ultra-sophistication, way over my head. Maybe it's all out of respect for the Bloods street gang, the way it’s cool to celebrate convicted rapists like Snoop Dogg -- or is it “Snoop Doggy Dogg”? After all, if George W. Bush could bow down to Ozzy Osbourne, far be it from me to disrespect Daimler-Chrysler’s new pitch man. All the same, I can't help but think that this “wear Red” business was cooked up by the same highly educated, sophisticated "conservatives" who twenty-odd years ago came up with the idea of making all of our soldiers and Marines look like they're fighting for Hitler's Wehrmacht. This “wear red” stuff just makes me blue.