Wednesday, July 9, 2008

The Bumper Sticker Debate

I was driving the other day (because that is still my right as long as I can pay $4.15 per gallon of gasoline) when I ground to a halt behind a pea green1984 Toyota Tercel spewing gray smoke into the air at a rate of 15 CFH’s (carbon footprints per hour).

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While waiting for the light to change, I did what I always do when forced to idle behind a 40 something hippie who could have made the light if he had exceeded the 12 mile-per -hour self-imposed speed limit; I read his bumper stickers…all 75 of them.

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The irony of the situation aside (in this case, a hippie environmentalist spewing carbon emissions faster than an 18-wheeler’s smoke stack) was the fact that somewhere, at sometime, this citizen activist decided to make his soap box platitudes from the bumper of his relic “motorized car” while idling at red lights all over town. Is this a new form of advertising or simply an idiot with a platform and no clear, precise manner in which to digress? Sticker #54 got me thinking and it wasn’t from a political perspective.

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Why is it that extremely liberal people use bumper sticker’s to sway political opinion? Is it to convince me that I have been wrong all these years for not hugging trees, not voting for John Kerry, driving a SUV, eating meat, living in a conditioned environment, wearing leather, disbelieving in global warming, and for supporting the war on terror? Call me crazy but this type of propaganda has never worked on me. I’m partial to candidates and platforms being explained objectively and in a forum that warrants equal time so that I may draw my own conclusions from the information presented. I don’t care that you support gay marriage as long as you’re cool that I don’t. Do we really need a bumper sticker to make these assertions?

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Let me clarify my position, it is not my intention to engage in partisan politics. That can be done in another form and fashion. It is my intention, however, to question the stupidity of covering a vehicle in cleverly-crafted clichés aimed at sculpting a political consensus regarding liberal or conservative concepts and philosophies (mostly liberal).

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My advice, get a job that pays a salary and focus your political ire in a manner that deems you credible with your audience. Then, perhaps you will convince a few people that their mind-sets should be considerate of your view-points. Or you can keep on spewing hot air out the back of your hooptie wondering how to make your impression felt. I’m off to have another bumper sticker debate…wish me luck. Just a thought

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