Photo: A possible future moon mission.
I seem to recall, a couple of years ago, the Daily Post running advertisements for the COVID vaccinations. The ads featured healthy-looking people smiling at the camera and showing off band-aids on their upper arms.
The band-aids were shown in various colors. Blue, pink, green, yellow, orange. The bright colors helped make the band-aids more visible in the photos. And also, more innocent-looking.
The ads implied that you would be happier if you got vaccinated and then wore a brightly colored band-aid around for a few days, to show off your public health politics.
For many years now, we’ve been able to buy band-aids (for children?) featuring cartoon characters and superheroes — Disney characters, Hello Kitty, Muppets, Spiderman, Captain America — and more recently, colorful band-aids have become available, without any imprinted characters for adults too self-conscious to wear superheroes.
But I recently found myself wondering if any manufacturers are producing band-aids striped with the six rainbow colors of the Pride Flag.
I did a quick search online and found “glow-in-the-dark” band-aids…
…but much to my surprise, I couldn’t find any rainbow-striped “Pride” band-aids. Maybe our capitalistic system is falling down on the job? You’d think someone could make money selling rainbow band-aids.
I’m thinking about rainbow colors this morning, because June is Pride Month. Pagosa Springs has become a bit more prideful these days, although we don’t yet have a Pride Parade like they have in most big cities.
Of course, we don’t have a lot of things here. But in June, the main thing we don’t have is a Pride Parade.
One thing we do have, however, is a Town Council that took a few moments at their last meeting to promote Pride Month and commemorate “the resilience and triumphs of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) community in the pursuit of equal rights and social justice.”
From the June 4 proclamation:
WHEREAS, the Town continues to work towards building an inclusive, safe, and affirming community for LGBTQ+ individuals and their families; and
WHEREAS, all people should have the fundamental right to express who they are in all facets of their lives, whether at school, in their families, in public, or in their workplace; and
WHEREAS, we celebrate books that illustrate the diverse LGBTQ+ community of people of many races, ethnicities, religions, abilities, and professions; and
WHEREAS, all are welcome in Pagosa Springs, and diversity is an asset that enhances and enriches the lives of all Pagosa Springs residents…
Seems the Colorado Republican Party feels somewhat differently about Pride Month.
Colorado GOP chair Dave Williams sent out a mass email a few days ago, titled “God Hates Pride.”
“The month of June has arrived and, once again, the godless groomers in our society want to attack what is decent, holy, and righteous so they can ultimately harm our children.”
The email included a link to a deeply religious video by Pastor Mark Driscoll entitled “God Hates Flags.” I’m easily triggered, so I didn’t watch the linked video.
That’s a pretty audacious claim, that God hates flags, but for all I know, it might be biblically accurate.
I don’t recall many mentions of flags in the Bible, except for a couple of references in the Old Testament. Like this one, from Exodus, in the story about Moses as a baby, bundled up in an ark made of bulrushes and hidden beside the river.
And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river’s side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.
But I believe the author was talking about the species of flowers called ‘flags’.
I would be greatly surprised if God hated this particular flower, but I’m not a Republican, so I’m not going to make any claim of certainty.
And it’s entirely possible the Egyptians posted actual political flags along the river? For all we know, they could have been were Pride flags.
But that was a long time ago. I’m more interested in what’s coming, in the future.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.