The other day while stopped at a red light I noticed that the SUV in front of me had a decal on its rear window that said, "I belong to the NRA/And I vote." My first reaction was, "Big, bleeding whoop." Then I tried to figure out the driver's intent when he placed the decal in his window. Was this person (In my mind's eye I pictured an overweight male with a none too clean 1973 hair cut, wearing Wrangler's that fit only because he wears them very, very low—fastening his belt somewhere in the vicinity of his scrotum. (I always want to remind these guys that belt buckles are not supposed to be horizontal.) He finds stock car racing extremely interesting, and its strategy fascinating), was this person trying to make a patriotic declaration, or was it a threat?
I suppose one could make the argument that he was telling The World, or at least the traffic stuck behind him, that he was an American who takes the electoral process and his rights under the Constitution seriously, and is willing to defend them both vigorously. On the other hand, one could read those words and come to the conclusion that he was saying something like, "One way or another I'm going to force you to do things my way."
Now, I will never know which interpretation was closest to that driver's true beliefs, or if, indeed, he had even thought the statement through and actually formed an opinion. For all I know, the decal was there when he bought the vehicle, or perhaps it was in the envelope of stuff that came after he paid his dues (along with his Official NRA Membership Card—to be carried at all times) and he just stuck it on the window because it looked cool. But I am positive that the image formed by that giant SUV and that decal is one of the major reasons we Americans are so reviled by much of the world's population. The grossly oversized SUV or pickup truck is all too often the vehicle of the road bully. The driver's intent is to intimidate those around him, and force them to give way and acknowledge his power, both physical and economic. He cares nothing about your rights, or safety, and the decal is there to make sure you get the point. Not an image to generate real respect or friendship.
I'll admit that I don't really understand why so many, especially Muslims, hate us so vehemently, but when I see a black Suburban or Tahoe or Escalade or Ford 350 with an NRA sticker I begin to see why just a bit.
人をそしる心をすて豆の皮むく
Discarding my wish To revile someone I shell peas.
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A friend has a bumper sticker a like: "I play the accordian, and I vote."
ReplyDeleteMine would be: "I fold origami animals, and I vote."
I like this one too:
ReplyDelete"I support a bear's right to arm."
I like, "I don't give a shit, and I vote."
ReplyDeleteGood post, Guy. I often have those same conversations with myself. I will challenge your assumption that "especially" Muslims hate Americans, however. Who says? Is there a higher percentage of Muslims than say Christians or Pagans or Atheists who hate Americans? Back in the seventies when I was backpacking across Europe, I stumbled across quite a few people who didn't like Yanks, although most were just so perplexed by our government and wondered why we were in Vietnam and why we were so violent and in love with guns. "Is it true that every American owns a gun?" I was asked. Most of those people were most likely Christians. (Maybe Church of England, and you remember how Eddie Izzard described them.)
I grew up in Canada, where anti-Americanism was a national pastime that cut across all soci-economic-political-religious lines. It varied from grudging resentment, to outright hatred, but it was almost always there in the background, like mood music in department stores. To me, there was no mystery to it: the United States is enormously influential in the world. Whenever one country gets that much power, there is going to be resentment and animostiy of various degrees. I really don't see how such an outcome can be avoided. The colonies resented England. The soviet states resented Moscow. The ancient world resented Rome. It's one of the prices of power.
ReplyDeleteBoth Kim and Mario are correct in their observations about America's popularity. As Eddie Izzard observes, when traveling abroad it's perhaps best to say we are Canadian.
ReplyDeleteMy statement that "especially Muslims" hate us was purely a subjective statement based on media's tendency to report primarily our popularity in the Middle East. I don't for a minute believe that they are the only group that hates us, but my, perhaps naive, feeling is that the Islamic world is more universal in its hatred.