What do a beer company and a bloviating governor have in common? They are using Memorial Day to advance the C-19 narrative. Dying for your country isn’t enough, and the one day set aside to honor that sacrifice is becoming a platform to the pandemic. 

Bad Beer

Budweiser beer has an uncanny ability to target their ads to the pulse of America. The sight of a clydesdale running across the screen brings chills and instant recognition of the product being marketed. Often we breathe a collective sigh, and relish a feeling of unity in being American. This Memorial Day, Budweiser is flat. Their ad advocating for “Two Minutes of Silence” for our fallen war dead AND healthcare workers waters down a holiday that should be solely dedicated to military KIA.

This Memorial Day, join us & #TakeTwoMinutes to honor those who have fallen defending our country: at 3:00 PM to honor fallen military members & 3:01 PM to pay tribute to the fallen frontline workers of the COVID-19 crisis. Share to raise awareness of #TakeTwoMinutes silence. pic.twitter.com/boZM6EzWQ4

— Budweiser (@budweiserusa) May 22, 2020

Even the famous Clydesdale imagery ad fails in a spectacularly ambiguous TV spot. Released near Memorial Day, but no mention of the reason FOR the holiday.

Ad Week lauds the campaign, and quotes Budweiser marketing vp Monice Rustgi,

According to Budweiser marketing vp Monica Rustgi, this year the meaning of service to one’s country has been expanded, and the company contemplated as much in designing this effort. “This Memorial Day honors all those who have lost their lives defending our freedom—soldiers who have fallen… and now, front-line workers who heroically went to fight the Covid battle,” dying in that equally noble effort.”

You don’t get to “expand” the meaning of a holiday to honor people who don’t actually qualify for the intent of the holiday. Yes, healthcare workers are at risk. The FEW who are actually at the epicenters. But they aren’t charging up a hill into a barrage of bullets and artillery. They aren’t watching their best friend hold in tears and guts while telling them to “carry on the fight!”.  They aren’t carrying a mortally wounded battle buddy to an extraction point, knowing that the next time they meet it will be over a folded flag and family tears.

This isn’t to say that healthcare workers aren’t deserving of recognition. But not at this particular holiday. This isn’t a conflated version of Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day, and First Responder Day. It’s a day set aside to honor the sacrifice of military KIA, and those made daily by their surviving family and friends.

This recipe to water down a holiday falls as flat as their beer.

Wear a Mask to Honor the War Dead… Says the Braindead.

If you aren’t already on the train to “What’deHellsville”, prepare to board in Massachusetts. “Masshole” has a new face, and it looks a lot like the governor. Gov. Charlie Baker is being rightly eviscerated in the Boston Herald for his stance on wearing masks this Memorial Day.

If you don’t want to wear a mask because you don’t like wearing a mask, if you don’t want to social distance because you don’t like to social distance, please think about those families,” he said. “Those Moms and Dads, those brothers and sisters, those sons and daughters of those who lost their lives fighting for your freedom to put on that mask, and just do it for them. Socially distance for them. Wash your hands for them because if they were here they’d have done the same thing.”

Yeahhhhhh, well Mr.Guv’nuh the masks donned by KIA were meant to keep out toxic gasses. They often failed spectacularly, resulting in agonizingly painful death. On a battlefield in a far off land, surrounded by brothers and sisters in arms who shared a love deeper than 99.5% of Americans will ever understand.

He rivals Osmium for the most dense object on earth. Not only is he minimizing the holiday to beer, cookouts, and the beach… he’s using American war dead to push an agenda of wearing a mask. Putting on a mask doesn’t exemplify freedom, especially when it’s mandated in areas of the country. 

What better way to question the patriotism of our fellow citizens than question it because they don’t wear a mask? To add insult to injury, let’s stand on the bodies of KIA while we do it.

Memorial Day: Not Beer, Not Bloviating

I challenge the Budweiser ad team, and the Governor to attend a military funeral. Thankfully they are becoming rare for KIA. But these two groups need to understand that going to work in a health care setting is nowhere near the same risk or sacrifice as heading to battle in a war zone.

Opening the doors to the hospital isn’t the same as stepping over the dead to exit an Amphibious Landing Craft into a hailstorm of bullets.

Rolling out of bed at home to go to work doesn’t compare to rushing out of bed, a blaring siren warning to incoming RPG’s. Blindly grabbing a sidearm and running out of the tent to lay down suppressive fire in a valiant effort to stop the enemy from overrunning an airbase.

It should not be convoluted by ignorance.

As my friend Carrie would say, “Speak their Name”… those people who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

People like Senior Chief Petty Officer Scott Cooper Dayton. 

Speak his name. 

Like Army Capt. Jennifer M. Moreno.

Speak her name.

Marine Lt. Colonel Christopher “Otis” Raible.

Speak his name.

And the names of so many others, who answered the call and died fighting for it.

Featured Image Credit: Sgt. Bobby J. Yarbrough License: Public Domain Image Cropped:400×400