STRIKING THE POSE
Salt Lakers “Doing A Lynndie”
By Randy Harward, 2-15-06
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| Dennis Rodman Gets Lynndied | |
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The UK humor website Bad Gas has a Abu Ghraib torturer Lynndie England. Says Bad Gas, "The image has shocked, sickened and outraged people. But more importantly, it has captured the imagination of young men and women all around the world who don't give much of a shit about anything. The result is a new craze called "Doing a Lynndie." If you aren't doing a Lynndie now, you soon will be."
People are sending in irreverent photos of themselves doing a Lynndie in surgeries, in front of crying babies, behind a diabetic preparing his insulin injection. Others show drunks, both passed-out and puking, getting Lynndied. There's a section of amusing Photoshopped and staged Lynndies. And some folks have even done a Lynndie during a celebrity encounter. And three such Lynndie-enhanced brushes with fame come from good ol' Salt Lake City, (perhaps during the film festivals).
It might seem to be in bad taste, making a joke out of something as appalling as Abu Ghraib. But in pointing out the ridiculousness of the torturers, there is biting social commentary (although that's evidently not the intent of Bad Gas). Lynndie England, Charles Graner--what they did and how they did it shows they're neither bright nor any kind of soldier. As well, taking the "Lynndie" out of context and doing it in surgery or other inappropriate situations is one way not to forget the shame of Abu Ghraib.
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