Underwhelming Support

Posted on October 13, 2002 in Neighborhood

Friday’s declaration of something that looks, tastes, feels, smells, and sounds a lot like a war produced little enthusiasm in Portola Hills. The flags hanging from the decks were there months before the vote. No one sings out that “we’re off to kill Hussein”. I don’t even see kids playing the kind of war games that I remember as a kid growing up during Vietnam.

When I do see new American flags flying (such as those freshly encircling the Mobil station where we buy our gas) or patriotic shirts, I cannot help but note that those who display them appear to be what many white and black people consider “marginal Americans”: Asians, Middle Easterners, Latin Americans, Jamaicans, Europeans who have not lost their accent.

The freeway keeps flowing towards and away from the metropole. School buses pick up and drop off children at the corner by the recreational center. Braceros plant trees and rake the earth to prepare for the planting of grass in Concourse Park. The rest of us sit on our decks or watch television or go out for fajitas at Chili’s. The Iraq Adventure happens without a second thought from us. It’s something the Washington government is doing, far and away.

Scott posted a link to this: Whoops-o-Matic.