Walmart wants you to buy soda and remember those who lost their lives on September 11.
A Walmart in Florida wants you to buy soda and remember those who lost their lives on September 11. KEN WOLTER / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

The thing is this: How is promoting Coca-Cola products by honoring the victims of 9/11 at all different from playing the national anthem before a professional football match or the Super Bowl? It only takes a little thought to see that none exists. The former is the same as the latter. And so it is very strange that many were upset by the "use of soda products to represent the twin towers" in a Florida Walmart, but fine with Colin Kaepernick's refusal to stand for the national anthem during an event that would not exist if it weren't promoting and pushing all manner of consumer products.

Why do we see 9/11 soda as offensive as money changers in a temple and not the performance of the nation's most sacred song in the midst of advertisements for mouthwash, hair conditioner, and Viagra? Asking a player to stand for the national anthem at a multi-million dollar marketing event is the same as asking regular people to stop and appreciate an American flag (hand on heart) when visiting a used-car lot.

I will end this brief post with these words by Marx and Engles: "[the capitalist] drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of Philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation."