The following would be a bad idea at any time of the year, but it’s especially cringeworthy now.
Tom Steele, Dallas Morning News:
A San Antonio mattress store has drawn widespread criticism after posting a video on Facebook promoting a “Twin Towers Sale.”
In the video, Miracle Mattress manager Cherise Bonanno says that there’s no better way to remember the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks than the sale, which offers any size mattress for the price of a twin mattress…
Hmm. I understand why people are upset, but this doesn’t offend me. Partly because, while it’s thoughtless and dumb, it doesn’t seem to be intentionally malicious or hurtful. But mostly because it’s an ad for a mattress store in San Antonio. If I lived in San Antonio, I suppose I’d tell them I’m never shopping there. Or maybe not, I don’t know. As it is, it doesn’t affect my life one way or another. If they let me have my Alamo jokes, I’ll let them have their 9/11 jokes.
But since this is 2016, it’s everybody’s business and we’re all obligated to express our outrage. So now, within the space of 12 hours, this:
All Mattressses at twin prices! #miraclemattress #worldtradecenter #twinsale #sale #america #neverforget https://t.co/5mfqt0gvIf
— Miracle Mattress (@MiracleMattress) September 8, 2016
Becomes this:
To all of those who have seen our 9/11 sale. We are very sorry we have offended you. Our intentions were not to… https://t.co/gXIifffIjp
— Miracle Mattress (@MiracleMattress) September 8, 2016
Life, as they say, comes at you fast.
It’s an interesting question, though: How soon is too soon? I’m reminded of this old Monty Python bit:
Now, this aired 28 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Unlike the dumb mattress-store ad, this is actually funny. And, of course, they didn’t have social media back in 1969. Anybody who was outraged had to call the BBC, or write letters, or whatever outraged people did back then. It was a lot tougher to whip up a lynch mob over every imaginable affront.
But it was still using a horrible event within living memory for comedic purposes. Is it too late to force Monty Python to apologize? Can we get #SaySorryMonty trending?
Well, go ahead and scream at these people in San Antonio if you want. “Drag” them, boycott them, whatever you want to do. As I see it, they’re already being punished every single day when they show up to work at a mattress store.