Ban T-Shirts Blog

This part of Ban T-Shirts is to provide links to articles of interest to our visitors, to act as a forum for our opinions and your opinions, and to provide information about the site.
We reserve the right to publish any emails submitted in abbreviated form or in their entirety.

24-4-08

More moral support, this time from.... SEAN!!

Until I read some of the hate mail that you guys willingly posted I never realized how powerful a simple t-shirt can be. The shirts message's are enough to ruffle some peoples feathers so you must be doing something right. When people result to name calling it's only because they have nothing left to say. Keep up the good work; I will be buying from you shortly.

And one from Don, who hates the shirts, but despite that is actually OK :-)

At first glance the only shirt that chapped my ass was the Fort Benning shirt but after doing my due diligence and finding out what you meant by that shirt my ass became un-chapped. I’m a veteran of the U.S. Marines, I served in Iraq and Africa (yes we have anti-terrorist ops there too) and I gotta say though I think Bush is a fucking moron and I don’t agree with your shirts statements. It sucks to see so many people lash out in the hate mail as if the freedom of speech doesn’t apply to you guys. So contradictorily speaking your shirts suck and fuck you guys (lol), but keep up the great job in exercising your rights because whether we agree or disagree, everyone has a right to speak up.

22-4-08

Another cool email, just thought I'd post it:

I just ordered a shirt...and was looking at all the hate mail you receive...WOW... its funny how when I get into conversation with people and voice my opinion (which I believe to be rather open minded and peaceful) how many of these people turn red and yell.... "THEN GET THE HELL OUT OF THIS COUNTRY IF YOU BELIEVE IN HEALTH CARE FOR ALL YOU SOCIALIST BITCH" this happened the other day with a complete stranger at a pub over some cold beers....So yeah...its funny how you cannot have an opinion in this supposed FREE country....we so try to pride ourselves on..... Oh and my reply to this douche bag.... I served my country for 4 great years..pay my taxes..and yes asshole..... I believe in health care for all.....and I won't leave because I have an opinion different from yours.... maybe we should leave and let the Native Americans have their land back.... Hmm...what a thought....
Molly

20-4-08

I received a couple of supportive emails (in contrast to the usual hate mail) so I thought I'd post them here. From Joe:

Great website. Love the shirts and will be ordering very shortly. This is to all the e-mailers who can casually wish death upon you for selling shirts and think that a website has enough political pull to change the world. One particular e-mail stuck with me that said ”I hope you dye when all the sand niggers come over.” This e-mail is obviously from a prejudice person in general, and very uneducated. As for Native Americans not respecting Bush, no wonder! I don’t, and I’m not in their position. He does nothing for their people. Your answer to his e-mail was not only sweet, but true. Does the ignorance of the general population frustrate you? There was also an e-mail about ignorance displayed on your website. I see none. I see the truth and some people just can’t handle the truth. Their brains have been washed so much that they actually believe the media (I do not know how, when every media channel you turn to has a different version of the day’s events).

I didn’t see an email addressing the Native American t-shirts. That was pure genocide by our government, for land in the country these people live in today; I guess that’s O.K. in their eyes, though. It was O.K. when our government massacred helpless Native Americans and bragged about it, including women and children. By the way, I’ve seen nothing on your website, degrading the troops, only the falsifications about what this war is about, and I concur!!! I support the troops. All troops deserve our support. Some went for many reasons that had nothing to do with whether they believed in the cause or not. For example, a young man or woman’s parole officer tells he or she that if the military is their last alternative or it’s jail and because Bush painted the war as a piece of cake, they went in and that’s only one example out of many I have.

Another thing is these military members writing in and bashing the site, you sell t-shirts. They all went in of their own free will but I think they have a problem because they now know deep down in their heart of hearts that Bush lied to them. That doesn’t mean that I support the troops any less, just the Commander in Chief! So, instead of bashing a website, do something productive, become a politician, because that’s what they all sound like.. As in any group of people, there are good and bad, and I personally hope we’re just hearing from the dumbfucks that were over there and that is not the whole consensus of our military. My relatives who have come home and are safe now, are very young, got drunk and decided that the next day they would go join. How sad. That’s exactly what they did. Another joined to get out of a bad family situation. So, to all you hate e-mailers. Think about that for awhile, and remember that ever time you email this site, the responder makes an ass out of you. At least do a little research!! Now, I think I’ll order.

Sincerely

Thinkbeforespeak

And an email from Lizbeth:

Hey congrats. to pissing people off. I love how half the people in america are unaware that freedom of speech can be related to a tee shirt.

18-4-08

"Poor go hungry while the rich fill their tanks." Published in The Guardian.

"In the US and Europe over the last year we have been focusing on the prices of gasoline at the pumps. While many worry about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs. And it's getting more and more difficult every day." Read the article here.

The race for biofuels is pushing up the cost of staple food like bread and rice. People are going to die so we can buy gas. Think twice before you use your car... walk, cycle... car-pool, share a ride into work with a work-mate.

16-4-08

Check out this anti-scientology site, the author has had a lot of trouble and harrassment from $cientologists trying to restrict his freedom of speech. These people are control freaks and pose a real danger to those who criticise them. They have a lot of power and money, it is difficult to stand up to them if you are just a regular guy, but the person nehind this site is doing a great job.

15-4-08

I'd like to share this email from a "Supportive Service Member" (just to show that we're not universally hated by the US Military):

Hey guys,
Just wanted to give y'all some positive feedback for a change. I was reading your hate-mail section and found it hilarious. Right off the bat, I want to say that I'm a U.S. Marine, but I support what you do. I'm tired off all the service members online mindlessly regurgitating what has been force-fed to them. I personally don't like to label myself or affiliate myself politically, but I still have my humanity as well as my own views. I loved all the comments from people talking about the war when they have no idea what really is going on in relation to said subject. Anyways, you have my support and I look forward to further business with your site. I take pleasure in fighting for a country where there is not only free speech, but where there still are a select few who practice it. Keep up the good work!

12-4-08

This is why we use sweat shop free t-shirts: Indian 'slave' children found making low-cost clothes destined for Gap.

"Consumers in the West should not only be demanding answers from retailers as to how goods are produced but looking deep within themselves at how they spend their money."

11-4-08

On the subject of the Vandalism shirt, I received an email from a visitor to the site a couple of days ago who had evidently spend a good while checking out the shirts and thinking about what we are about. The email is published below, followed by my response:

I just stumbled upon Ban T-shirts, and was pleasantly surprised; your offerings are much deeper than what one would find at most T-Shirt sites, and though I feel some of your views are too idealistic even for me, I nevertheless see their appeal.

However, I do have a rather significant problem with one of your shirts.

For the God is Dead shirt, you have written this:

"We are making this T-shirt because we believe that in order for the world to move on we need to overcome the concept of God that organised religions, particularly Islam and Christianity, present to the world. These religions present God in an inflexible, dogmatic way and demand slave-like conformity to an "objective" morality. While superficially preaching tolerance, they encourage conflict by insisting that they are the only source of "truth". This is a call to reject the God of organised religion and to believe in ourselves."

Bravo! I could not agree with you more. Unfortunately, however, this message is not consistent with the rest of your site.

You have quite a few shirts dealing with Native American rights; I find none of them particularly appealing. While I agree that the indigenous peoples of the Americas were sorely mistreated for centuries, I do not think that judging those that committed said misdeeds is useful or productive. That said, I do not particularly dislike any of these designs, with one exception; your vandalism shirt, for which you have written:

"Maybe spray painting a few subway trains isn't such a big deal - when compared to desecrating nature and the Black Hills sacred to the Lakota."

Desecration of nature seems an odd claim-- I agree that nature can be quite beautiful without modification, but Mount Rushmore relies heavily upon the nature that makes it and surrounds it for its beauty. It is hardly a desecration. Do you consider any statue to be a desecration of nature? After all, they are all artificial constructs made from natural stone. The only thing different about Mount Rushmore is that it was not removed from the source of the rock. I'm assuming that you would not fight very hard to defend the "desecrating nature" claim, which seems a silly one.

So, we are left with the claim that Mount Rushmore has desecrated the sacred. What? I thought we were supposed to believe in ourselves; now we're supposed to believe in... mountains? Can you see why this is not in keeping with the beliefs you have written for the "God is Dead" shirt? The Lakota belief that the mountains are sacred is just as inflexible, dogmatic, and ridiculous as any tenet of Islam or Christianity. Why should their beliefs matter when Christian ones do not? Simply because they are not an "organized" religion? What does that even mean? So far as I know, the Lakota religion has a set group of followers, practices, and leaders. Granted, it has become marginalized, but what makes a marginalized religion automatically better than an official one? The answer is "nothing". I wonder if your respect for the Lakota beliefs over Christian ones might simply be a matter of reverse-racism, as pained as I am to use that term.

My response was the following:

First of all thanks for taking the time to write. You have obviously spent some time viewing the site and thinking about what we do and say, and I appreciate that.

To answer your point about the Vandalism shirt, I think I can sum up my point of view by saying “we are not advocating the desecration of churches or mosques”. While I do not follow any religion, I respect the right of other people to do so, so therefore I would not advocate burning down a church or defacing a mosque. However, Native Americans see Mount Rushmore as a descration of a place that is sacred to them, and I empathise with this view. “Nature” and “sacred places” are overlapping concepts in Native American culture and they cannot be so conveniently separated as they are in Western mainstream culture. Mount Rushmore is the equivalent of a Christian carving a huge cross over the entrance of a mosque. But because of the closeness of the concepts of nature and sacred places I actually think it is even worse than that.

As you point out, native peoples have been at the sharp end of “manifest destiny” for the last few centuries and things nowadays are just as grim, both in the USA and the rest of the world. I don’t put all religions in the same category, in fact I don’t even know if Native American spiritual beliefs can properly called a religion. Belief in “God”, a “Great Spirit”, yes, obviously, but it is not a religion in the same way that Christianity or Islam is. For one they don’t go around expecting everyone else to follow their beliefs. Neither do they have a "rule book". Anyway – other points I should make are that God is Dead was designed by me, and the Native shirts are designed by Ryan Red Corn. You can check out more info about Ryan here:

http://www.nvisionit.org/ryanredcorn.html

It’s probably not reasonable to expect 100% consistency in what is being communicated on our shirts, although I think it’s true that they all fall into the same political ball park. People’s ideas change over time, and there are shirts by various designers on the site, so the message is not going to be 100% consistent.

10-4-08

The UK and the US have spent billions invading/occupying Iraq, and they want some money back. After all, what's the point of an invasion if there's nothing in it for the victors?

Tony Blair will soon be leaving Number 10 Downing Street (at last) - but he's desperate to cement the UK's "special" relationship with the US before he goes... by requesting that the UK be used as a base for the "son of Star Wars". Well, Tony wouldn't care about what happens to the British public - he'll most likely be spending the rest of his life doing lecture tours around the USA.

The US flew $12,000,000,000 (yes, that's 12 BILLION dollars, folks) into Iraq in cash. Now they don't know where it is or what it was spent on.

Loads and loads of packages of shrink wrapped $100 bills in Baghdad waiting to be misplaced.