Thursday, March 19, 2026

Short story – “Still Relevant”

“Still Relevant”

With a sigh, Gary opened the bottom drawer of his dresser and took out a threadbare t-shirt.  Thirtyish years ago, it had been a plain, dark blue shirt his girlfriend at the time had ironed a political message on.  Now it was a faded blue and the message was hard to read since the letters had started peeling. 

His wife Susan watched him for a moment.  “It’s time to throw that away.”

“As I’ve explained before,” Gary stated, “I told my college girlfriend I would wear this shirt until it was no longer needed.  But sadly, we live in a world run by assholes who have no qualms about shedding other people’s blood for their oil.”

Gary pulled the shirt over his head, and looking at Susan gave it a firm tug over the belly that had somehow grown since college.  This unfortunately caused a large rip to open on the left side of the shirt.

Gary took a breath, then took the shirt off.  He folded it up, placed it back, then closed the drawer.  He turned to see Susan watching him with a raised eyebrow.  “Perhaps I should order a new one.”

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For those who didn’t get the reference, I remember back in 1990 in the lead up to the Gulf War, a lot of people protested the war with the phrase “No blood for oil.” While this was mostly on signs, I’m sure a few people put it on shirts.  I don’t know if anyone still has a shirt from then, but they, sadly, probably need a new one.

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