Yellow Ribbons for 9/11?

[Meshuga]

What do the yellow ribbons mean nowadays? Do they still mean support for our troops? You see, my empoyer is giving yellow ribbons to everybody because of 9/11.

I will wear the yellow ribbon because I do support the troops but what does the yellow ribbon have to do with 9/11? :-)

[greatauntoftriplets]

1. Does your employer think Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11?

n/t

[Meshuga]

4. It wasn't the empoyer I was now told.

It is Boston Properties who manage this office building. Maybe they think Saddam was responsible for 9/11.

[LynneSin]

2. Absolutely nothing

Since the yellow ribbons were a reminder that someone we love is far away from us and we want them to come home. The practice started from an a Tony Orlando song from the 70s. Ironically, the song was about someone who served time in a prison

I'm comin' home, I've done my time
Now I've got to know what is and isn't mine
If you received my letter telling you I'd soon be free
Then you'll know just what to do
If you still want me
If you still want me

Whoa, tie a yellow ribbon 'round the ole oak tree
It's been three long years
Do ya still want me? (still want me)
If I don't see a ribbon 'round the ole oak tree
I'll stay on the bus
Forget about us
Put the blame on me
If I don't see a yellow ribbon 'round the ole oak tree

Bus driver, please look for me
'cause I couldn't bear to see what I might see
I'm really still in prison
And my love, she holds the key
A simple yellow ribbon's what I need to set me free
I wrote and told her please

Whoa, tie a yellow ribbon 'round the ole oak tree
It's been three long years
Do ya still want me? (still want me)
If I don't see a ribbon 'round the ole oak tree
I'll stay on the bus
Forget about us
Put the blame on me
If I don't see a yellow ribbon 'round the ole oak tree

Now the whole darn bus is cheerin'
And I can't believe I see
A hundred yellow ribbons 'round the ole oak tree

I'm comin' home, mmm, mmm

(Tie a ribbon 'round the ole oak tree)
(Tie a ribbon 'round the ole oak tree)
(Tie a ribbon 'round the ole oak tree)
(Tie a ribbon 'round the ole oak tree)
(Tie a ribbon 'round the ole oak tree)
(Tie a ribbon 'round the ole oak tree)...

[Deja Q]

3. I think they call it 'Patriot Day' these days.

Why not "WTC Day" as they did for "Pearl Harbor Day"?

Does 'Patriot Day' imply that those 3000 Americans died for *'s gain?

[demnan]

5. I see these damn things on people's cars

I never liked any of the ribbon stuff myself. And I've always hated that song.

[Algorem]

6. this yellow ribbon plague has to end.

how bout replicas of Tony Orlando's bloody chopped-off head instead?

[Bridget Burke]

7. Don't blame Tony Orlando--it's an older custom.

However, it doesn't seem appropriate for 9/11.

The American Folklife Center found a story about white ribbons: It is the story of two men in a railroad train. One was so reserved that his companion had difficulty in persuading him to talk about himself. He was, he said at length, a convict returning from five years' imprisonment in a distant prison, but his people were too poor to visit him and were too uneducated to be very articulate on paper. Hence he had written to them to make a sign for him when he was released and came home. If they wanted him, they should put a white ribbon in the big apple tree which stood close to the railroad track at the bottom of the garden, and he would get off the train, but if they did not want him, they were to do nothing and he would stay on the train and seek a new life elsewhere. He said that they were nearing his home town and that he couldn't bear to look. His new friend said that he would look and took his place by the window to watch for the apple tree which the other had described to him.

In a minute he put a hand on his companion's arm. "There it is," he cried. "It's all right! The whole tree is white with ribbons."

The article also mentions the John Wayne film "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon"--named after a song that goes 'way back, where the ribbon is a reminder of an absent lover.

Living symbols change over time, but the victims of 9/11 are not coming back.

www.loc.gov/folklife/ribbons/ribbons.html