Gosh, I'm glad that I was too busy working and running to an evening class yesterday to see this on the news. I heard a someone mention the so-called "bomb scare" in Boston during my work day, but I disregarded it. In this "post 9-11" world, the media jumps on the slightest threat of terrorism, whether it be real or not, and blows it up to 9-11 proportions. I have decided to not care about "threats" anymore, the media has cried wolf far too many times.
When I saw an image of a Mooninite flicking me off on the evening news tonight, and heard that a publicity stunt for Aqua Teen Hunger Force was responsible for this scare, I couldn't help but laugh a little. I guess some battery powered signs that depicted different characters from the show were viewed as "sinister", and some people got scared. I can't help but wonder who's to blame for shutting down the city of Boston for a day; was it the ad agency that was so insensitive to put up "suspicious" objects all over a major metropolitan area, the Cartoon Network, the media, the police?
This is what the police had to say:
Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis called it "unconscionable" that the marketing campaign was executed in a post 9/11 era. "It's a foolish prank on the part of Turner Broadcasting," he said. "In the environment nowadays ... We really have to look at the motivation of the company here and why this happened." (a link to the source:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/31/boston.bombscare/index.html )
And the people who were arrested for this incident:
Berdovsky, an artist, told The Boston Globe he was hired by Interference and said he was "a little kind of freaked out," by the furor.
"I find it kind of ridiculous that they're making these statements on TV that we must not be safe from terrorism, because they were up there for three weeks and no one noticed. It's pretty commonsensical to look at them and say this is a piece of art and installation," he told The Globe. (a link to the source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-01-31-boston_x.htm ).
Everyone is pretty ticked off (and rightfully so) about this whole situation. I can't help wondering, however, why people go so scared of some little lighted signs. When, if ever, are we going to stop being a frightened society? Isn't life hard enough to deal with without factoring in the possibility of terrorism? Where is there room for happiness in a society that terrorizes itself? How many more open-ended questions can I come up with in one night?
I try very hard to remain objective when things like this occur. I certainly don't want to point my finger at anyone and blame them for what happened. I will say this, however: there are people in this world, both in our country and abroad, who benefit from Americans being scared all of the time. We have the right to think for ourselves, we have the right to protect ourselves, we have the right to feel secure in our own homes. I believe, the only we can guarantee that for ourselves is to turn off the TV every time we hear the word "Terrorism". I think it's what our founding fathers would have wanted us to do.
By the way, I do have a slight bias, Aqua Teen Hunger Force is one of my favorite shows on TV. It is not only funny, it also is 15 minutes long, with no commercials. Adult swim is great about keeping commercial breaks to a minimum.
Take that, corporate America!
#1 in Da HooD G!
By the way, if it's not obvious, the images I use for this blog are not mine. These are images from the series "Aqua Teen Hunger Force".
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