Bumper Stickers

America is a political place. Everyone seems to have an opinion and most people have too many to count. We have all seen celebrities and entertainers spout off on particular opinions concerning local or American politics, world affairs, and the like. It seems as though there is no place that you can be assured is opinion-free. There are no unopinionated places anymore, not even your street.

Bumper stickers used to be a way for motorists to entertain each other or add a bit of humor to the mundane drives to and from work. Nowadays you see mostly political bumper stickers meant to either make people think or just make them irritated. I have to admit that when I was younger I had a bumper sticker on my car that read “We tattooed your mom.” This was, of course, meant to irritate people. Mostly I just found it humorous and thought that anyone who would be offended by it needed to lighten up.

Today I see a lot of bumper stickers that voice an opinion on the issue of abortion. I find it a bit strange that people use the back bumper of their car to make a stand on what appears to be very sensitive issue. Many mornings before I have had my coffee I think that these stickers are a little bit much. I would not personally choose to think about such a thing first thing in the morning.

More than anything I would enjoy a bumper sticker that read “Your bumper stickers are stupid.” I think that may offend more people than any other message. In effect I would be disagreeing with every single bumper sticker out there and perhaps it would inspire the offended to slap a few more on their bumpers. Maybe there will even be a few people who have bumper stickers supporting all of their various opinions and I could get a good laugh after seeing a pro-life sticker next to a pro-death penalty one.

I do have to give the stickers and the people who sport them on their vehicles some credit. There is not much anonymity when you are driving around with your opinions on the butt-end of your car. At the very least it shows some sort of courage in comparison to the people who only voice their opinions under a cloak. For this I give the bumper sticker fans a little bit of credit although I seriously doubt that they are ever able to sway anyone's opinion.