Meditations on "Freedom" Fries Michael Moore's Sicko and The Ghettoization of America

If you recall, in March of 2003, as the United States was ramping up towards its invasion of Iraq, there was a bit of a kerfluffle between ourselves and the nation of France over France's lack of support for the war.

Things got so bad between us that there was a movement, spearheaded by now disgraced Republican Congressman Bob Ney, to eliminate all things France from the American Lexicon, not the least of which was to rename "French Fries" "Freedom Fries."

But we weren't going to go as far as abandon Washington DC, the city in which Ney made his proposal, despite it having been designed by a Frenchman, Lafayette, nor ship The Statue of Liberty back to France.

It was essentially just an attention getting PR gimmick, one of many of the jingoistic ones that were in vogue at the time, such as trying to run the multi-Grammy award winning Dixie Chicks out of town on a rail, and impugning the patriotism of any and all Americans that questioned entering this war on what we know now to be lies and the flimsiest of evidence.

Ney pushed it so far as to have the menu changed in the Congress's Rayburn Office Building Cafeteria to reflect this, the picture you see here on the left was taken during this time period.

I can personally vouch for the authenticity of this sign, in that it was during this time period that I was in the employee of lobbyists on Capitol Hill and the Rayburn was the spot that I would have my breakfast in instead of at home because my job entailed being up on The Hill at an ungodly hour.

On my very first day that I was working there, as I was ordering my scrambled eggs I was shocked to find myself standing in front of that very sign that had garnered so much national attention.

What happened next was even more shocking.

As I was waiting for the counterman to finish my order I was approached by a black woman who I estimated to be in her late 40s/early 50s. In her hand she was holding a plastic oyster shell that contained a hard-boiled egg