I was staring straight ahead during my morning commute, paying little attention to the world beyond the back of the car ahead of me this morning when something caught my eye. On that car’s bumper was a rectangular white sticker bearing the word “douche” in blue letters, and the letter “o” was the logo from the second Obama campaign for president, seen here:
I sat at a traffic light, at a loss for words or thought. After a few seconds, a thought occurred to me. “What is wrong with you?”
A bumper sticker like that is akin to those t-shirts you might’ve seen bearing the phrase “I hate the Dallas Cowboys.” Public expression of petty hatred. I’ve long wondered about the people who would wear something like that, too.
You can disagree with a politician’s policies and politics, you can dislike your favorite team’s arch-rivals, but does any of that need rise to the level of hatred? And if your thoughts or feelings do rise that high, shouldn’t you ask yourself why?
Why are you carrying such hatred in your mind? What’s gone wrong that you feel it not only acceptable, but pleasurable to stick a thumb in the eye of everyone whose politics or sports affinity differs with yours?
And finally, isn’t that what’s really at work in America today? Fear and hatred of other’s opinions and likes driving a vilification of them, of what they believe, and the willingness of some to debase themselves and their humanity by putting that hatred on public display.
Maybe these folks are so filled with self-loathing over their boorish opinions they just can’t help but let it spill over into the public forum. Sound familiar? Think about it.
A Random Stroll 