United Wastes of America

Our visit to Disney World corresponded with Memorial Weekend in the US. Many aspects of the American way of life frustrate and distress me, not least the culture of over-excessiveness and wastefulness, but one thing I can admire the US for is its national pride in its armed forces. Memorial Weekend, and the days leading up to it, feature giant Stars and Stripes flying from buildings everywhere and signs on diners, bus tops and billboards urging citizens to ‘support our troops’.

Walking through the Disney parks that week was a sobering experience: you couldn’t help but notice the significant number of young men on crutches or in wheelchairs with missing limbs and scarred flesh. Most were with their friends and families, doing their best to overcome their disabilities and enjoy a day out. Most were wearing their combat fatigues or T-shirts proudly proclaiming that they were ‘combat wounded’ or ‘a recipient of the Purple Heart’. Artificial metal legs were on show under shorts, rather than covered-up and denied. Young men whose lives had been damaged – some might say wastefully – in service to their country.

And alongside them, riding their mobility scooters towards the snack stands and restaurants, were the obese. Those too fat and too lazy to carry themselves on their own two intact legs, killing themselves due to relentless over-indulgence and service to their stomachs. Mingling with, and making a great hideous mockery of, those struggling on crutches or being pushed by wives in their wheelchairs who had sacrificed their bodies in service to their country.