Almost a year ago Michael Moore and Al Franken meant two completely opposite things to me. Moore was a self-righteous, pompous fire-breathing liberal who could make any self-respecting conservative's blood crawl at the mention of his name. Franken was a known political satirist, but was more commonly recognizable for his work as the neurotic, self-esteem building Richard Smiley on Saturday Night Life. Now, in the short span of a year, the two have become synonymous. Franken even managed to outdo "Dude, Where's my Country?" author Moore with his distasteful and uncalled for joke on military personnel woes in Iraq on the most recent edition of NBC's SNL.
Franken managed to end 2003 with a bang with the publication of his book "Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right" after ironically apologizing to Attorney General John Ashcroft for requesting, through stolen letterhead and blatant and purposeful lies, to inquire about Ashcroft's own sexual abstinence before marriage.
And to bring in 2004 with a bang, Franken appeared on the Jan. 10 episode of Saturday Night Live's well-known weekly "Weekend Update" bit. In the sketch, Franken pretended to be a Baghdad correspondent interviewing two American soldiers. The first one had his message to his wife and new born child cut off mid-sentence by imaginary static only to have the camera come back on Franken remarking that the young man wished his wife, whose name he "can't remember" and new baby well. Franken continued to the soldier on his right to wish him well on his new baby only to find out that the solider in question had been overseas for a year. You do the math. The bit ended with the irate soldier calling his wife a whore and Franken pretending to search for the real private with the new child. Not only was the skit unamusing, it was also terribly offensive to every American military personnel who has ever been separated from their families for the call of duty.
The truth of the matter is that many men are separated from their wives and newborns. Telephone communication is rare and video communication even rarer. Marriages do fall apart in times of war. Soldiers do get bad news while overseas. But just because something is a fact of war does not then make it subject for mockery. The men and women of the United States Armed Forces are making more than just the well-documented sacrifices of death and injury. They are missing milestones in the lives of their families, losing years of their lives at home, sacrificing jobs. And while Franken may feel that he is doing his own patriotic duty by fighting the big, bad Republicans and their unjust war, he is simply making a fool of both himself and Saturday Night Live. The United States soldiers serving overseas did not ask for this war. They did not start this fight and they certainly did not deploy themselves. They did, however, rise to the occasion when called upon. And their commitment to their duties is something to be applauded.
That is of course not to say that the American military should be permitted to avoid all criticism. By all means, criticize and critique every minuscule aspect of the military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and at home. Question the tactics and plans of the military brass. Make it a better oiled machine. But don't mock the soldier. Franken is kicking a man when he is already down. A man, who, ironically enough, is fighting for Franken's right to mock himon a Saturday night in front of an American public that is snuggled safely in bed. Franken would do well to remember who fights for his freedom. Then maybe his satire will not only be funny, but actually effective and meaningful.
(Maggie Bowden is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. She can be reached at mbowden@cavalierdaily.com)
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