Statement from Trijicon, Inc.
Monday, January 20, 2010—For two generations Trijicon, a Michigan-based family owned business, has been working to provide America’s military men and women with high quality, innovative sighting systems for the weapons they use. Our effort is simple and straightforward: to help our servicemen and women win the war on terror and come home safe to their families. As part of our faith and our belief in service to our country, Trijicon has put scripture references on our products for more than two decades. As long as we have men and women in danger, we will continue to do everything we can to provide them with both state-of-the-art technology and the never-ending support and prayers of a grateful nation.
Update Jan. 24: Trijicon will no longer ship sights to the military with the scripture references. Their statement.
LoS sent a question about the company name and logo as well as a comment that we respectfully disagree with the practice of putting scripture references on taxpayer-funded property. We'll keep you posted as to the reponse.
That statement's a pretty good piece of PR work.
ReplyDeleteOne odd thing, grammatically, about it is the way that they use "we".
"As long as we have men and women in danger, we will continue to do everything we can to provide them with..."
Do you see how the "we" switches from "we, the people of the USA" to "we, Trijicon"?
One other peculiar bit in that prose is the invoking of the "war on terror"--which invokes a timeframe that is inconsistent with their repeated references to the longevity of their mission.
BTW, I just learned that I was mispronouncing the name of the company, at least according to Wikipedia, which shows it as trij-i-kon rather than try-ji-kon (as I imagined). Either way, it sounds like a transformer, but the Wikipedia way sounds less like "tragedy" than my way.
Funny, I always assumed the trij-ih-con pronunciation. I wonder if that's because in French the "tri" prefix is pronounced that way? Developing other linguistic reflexes perhaps.
ReplyDeleteSharp eye on the use of "we". The company is totally wrong on this issue, however.
It goes without saying an army on foreign soil will do better and suffer less casualties with a native population working for them and not against them. Fear can stimulate this, but the US must convince the people they're better off with "us" than the enemy. Even if it's not of much consequence, these Bible verses will only serve to heighten the difference between the US soldiers and the people, a difference of religion that doesn't exist between them and the Taliban.
It's not anti-Christianity to point this out. Although wrong from the standpoint of separation of church and state and the fact that non-Christians shouldn't have their tax dollars spent of articles displaying Bible verses, the bottom line is that it puts soldiers in more danger. Maybe only slightly, but nonetheless.
I kind imagine Afghani Muslims will see it as inconsequential. So it's a real issue, not just "liberal" whining.
Again, no implied war patriotism here, just my interpretation of the facts.
"I kind imagine" should read "I can't imagine...." I'm so typo-prone these days. Fatigue or oncoming senility?
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