War: No war toys in Easter baskets

Word circulated that certain chain stores were selling Easter baskets loaded with war toys, so some friends and I ventured into an Oak Harbor store today and found the offending baskets on sale at $9.95 each. It is one of perhaps a dozen cheap and banal toy-filled baskets. It is not in itself a feature item. The toys are very cheap and the candy is just plastic bags of junk.

There is an outrageous range of trash on sale for Easter for children, and I would condemn all of it as offensive. True, the soldier baskets include two small, camouflaged soldiers and an array of hand weapons, not really a gift in the Easter spirit.

A parent who would buy any of this trash for a child would, I think, be a lazy, stupid and totally materialistic idiot. Nothing can replace the carefully hand-colored eggs in real baskets along with quality candy items we used to have in our home. But, then, the present American commercial culture is designed for fools with short attention spans.

I can't believe the level of stupidity our average citizen has achieved. So, I can't just pick out one particular item and react to that without seeing it in the context of American intellectual poverty. It's what got Bush the votes he got, and what keeps him as popular as he seems to be.

As one of our little group said today, Canada is looking more and more attractive were it not for their horrible neighbor to the south. No, I don't hate America, I miss it.

Julian Taber

Greenbank

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