No Yellow Ribbons

Late last night, Dr. Omed posted a powerful essay written by his lovely spouse, Els (scroll past the image to read "Yellow Is Not Our Color").

I find the phenomenon of yellow ribbons fascinating. As I recall, people first started putting yellow ribbons around their trees and mail box posts as a response to the Iranian Hostage Crisis in the '70s. This symbolic act was inspired by a popular song, "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" by Tony Orlando, who had a popular (if schlocky) variety show during the same period.

If you read the lyrics (linked above), you'll see the song concerns a man who is being released from prison:

I'm coming home, I've done my time.
Now I've got to know what is and isn't mine.
If you received my letter tellin' you I'd soon be free
Then you'll know just what to do if you still want me....
Tie a yellow ribbon 'round the old oak tree.

It's a relatively short song, with very jaunty music which has a slight honky-tonk feel. The lyrics are practically a definition of sentimentality: there is no cost for the emotion. He says he has to know what is and isn't his (apparantly, he was a thief); he doesn't say that he has learned the difference. At the end of the song, the wife puts not one, but one hundred, yellow ribbons on the old oak tree. It's nice that she forgives him, yet the forgiveness would be more meaningful if the prisoner told us her name, what she looked like, or any other detail about her.

As a response to people being held hostage in Iran, this song makes a certain amount of sense; they were prisoners. I doubt that most people who currently display yellow ribbons think our soldiers are in a prison. As Els points out, the fact that they put their yellow ribbon near an oval "W" sticker implies that they support the war as much they support the troups.

But, unless the driver has a child or loved one in the service, that support comes cheap. The sticker costs less than five bucks. The owner of the car with its magnetic yellow ribbon hasn't lobbied for increased veteran's benefits. She didn't write her congressman to protest when the VA health care budget was cut. He didn't sign petitions to increase funds for additional armor.

That superficial patriotism is very much like the sentimentality of Tony Orlando's song. It costs nothing.