Decaled Out

Staten Island is rabidly "patriotic." I remember going home about 2 weeks after 9/11 and literally every house on my block had an American flag mounted outside. (I live in a community populated with a lot of FDNY/NYPD families.) Every car had an American flag inside or posted to the window or on a sticker outside. Mall signs read "God Bless America" (they still do) and it was clear that it was a community deep in grief and mourning, but also supporting this country.

But while I have no problem with people expressing their faith and belief and support in the nation, there is such a thing as extremes. Over the same visit, I saw trucks that seemed like they were competing for how many flags could be mounted on a single vehicle. They had multiple flags on the windows, multiple stickers, attached flags that were becoming tattered from waving in the wind. I remember counting something like 6 American flags on a lot of vehicles, and this was in addition to handwritten messages or stickers proclaiming "9/11 - Never Forget" or various FDNY messages or others like that. (And always someone has to write "Kill the Terrorists" or something like that, but we'll leave that aside.) Every inch of their vehicle was literally covered in some "patriotic" message, putting aside the fact that tattered, worn out and frayed flags don't seem very patriotic at all.

Why do I bring this up now? Because something else has replaced the flags.

It seems that lately stores have begun selling a lot of "ribbon" decals for vehicles. They come in a few variations, like breast cancer awareness, but mostly "support our troops." The latter ribbons come in both yellow and the good ole red, white and blue. I had seen the decals sporadically while in Chicago, but going home for Thanksgiving, it seemed the ribbons had exploded all over Staten Island.

I passed a car in the parking lot the other day which had at least 4 ribbons surrounding the license plate. Two each of the yellow and RWB, one big and one small of each. This was a common sight. Like the flags, I don't have an inherent problem with the ribbons. But decorating the entire back of your car with the ribbons is a little excessive. You don't increase your degree of patriotism by adding ribbons to your car. You don't make it onto some special list of patriots the more decals you purchase and post on your car. (Although, this may not be far off if you believe that Big Brother is always watching...)

My mom told me that the ribbons sold at places like Bed Bath & Beyond give a part of the purchase price to the families of troops. I appreciate that and think it's great that maybe these people want to give more money to the charity, but here's some alternatives: give to the charity directly. Buy the decals but don't put all 10 of them all over your truck. I'm not going to respect you more because your car is bathed in support our troops ribbons. Especially not if you cut me off close on the road with no signal or drift into my lane because you're incapable of staying in your own. I'm not going to think more of you because you're a "patriot." If anything, the massive amounts of decals turn me off. One ribbon, okay. Two ribbons, still okay, especially if it's for more than one cause. Eight "support our troops" ribbons? Nope.

I should stop being amazed by the outward show of patriotism by Staten Islanders. It happens every time there's a big event or a new hot item. It's no wonder that we're the NYC county that keeps voting Republicans into office.