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Edited on Sat Jun-09-07 03:29 AM by piesRsquare
I hadn't thought about that...
I'm actually not "anti-ribbon", per se...(or maybe I am, but just never thought of it in such terms).
The following is an excerpt of a letter I wrote three years ago to an organization that wanted to use a red ribbon to represent the cause of organ donation:
In 1985, a young man named Roger Lyon went before Congress on the issue of government funding for AIDS research. Infected with HIV and essentially pleading for his life, Mr. Lyon addressed the members saying, "I came here today to ask that this nation, with all its resources and compassion, not let my epitaph read, 'He died of red tape.'" Roger died of AIDS the following year; this statement is on his headstone and on several blocks of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. A red ribbon--in reference to the "red tape" Roger Lyon spoke of--was then adopted as the symbol of HIV/AIDS awareness and activism. The red "ribbon" serves as an in-your-face sort of reminder that people are dying of red tape--that the bureaucratic and political delay of desperately-needed funding for research and treatment of HIV and AIDS is killing thousands of people in this country, most of them young adults.
The very shape of the "ribbon" (the loop on top with the two cut or frayed ends below) is supposed to resemble a long piece of tape; it's not supposed to be nor represent a ribbon at all. Ribbon started being used instead of tape so people could have a reusable pin to wear regularly.
The vast majority of the population is unaware of the story behind the "AIDS red ribbon", and, unfortunately, other organizations started to do "the colored ribbon thing": pink for breast cancer, blue for free speech, blah blah blah. This, in my viewpoint, has weakened and even cheapened what was originally a very powerful symbol. Tragically, many people don't remember--or even know--what the red "ribbon" means. Yet AIDS is still killing, and there still exists neither a cure nor a vaccine.
Myself, I will only wear or display the red ribbon (tape) that has this shape.
The yellow ribbon--an actual ribbon--has long been an American symbol of soldiers returning home. Said ribbon--as I remember seeing it in the days before the AIDS "ribbon"--was usually tied in a bow. It means "We haven't forgotten you"; it means, "We're here, waiting for you to return home".
I believe the tied yellow ribbon should continue to represent our eagerly awaiting our soldiers' return home; it was never intended as a "Support the Troops (and the War)" symbol.
The designation a new color (blue) to another cause's symbol (AIDS red tape) for an ancient cause (soldiers returning home from war) rubs me the wrong way, in that it seems like the ultimate example of today's epidemic laziness and shallowness, where cut-and-paste, compilation, and remake pass as "design". To many, this is "just another colored ribbon"; for me personally, it's yet another misunderstanding and cheapening of the AIDS red tape.
If "Bring Them Home" needs a ribbon or a symbol, the tied yellow ribbon is culturally and historically appropriate. I would prefer to reclaim the yellow ribbon from the pro-war wingnuts, and dissociate it from the AIDS "ribbon" by showing it tied in a bow. The original, traditional symbol (the tied yellow ribbon) is more than sufficient for this cause--and more powerful.
On Edit: "fartknockers"--that's hilarious! :rofl:
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