Have you ever met someone who claims to be a fan of a person, place, organization, cause, group, etc. that appears to be in direct contradiction to who the someone really is? Let me clarify my question so you know where I'm coming from. This may be considered a rant, I'm not sure.
Yesterday while out running a few errands (the errands I can afford to run are dwindling, as my employment status continues to be that of "un") I pulled up behind a car at a red light. The first thing I noticed about the car was the "Free Tibet" sticker on the right side of the bumper. I thought, cool, someone who cares about the rights of Tibetans and wants to join the fight to end the unfair Chinese occupation of Tibet. My eyes then shifted to the left side of the bumper. What the hell? There, in juxtaposition of the Tibet sticker is a McCain/Palin sticker! Who is this person driving this car? Do you know what the Free Tibet organization is? Apparently not, or you wouldn't be touting your loyalty to the political group in our country who doesn't have one activist bone in their collective bodies. Ugh!
At this point I was irritated and wanted to pull this person to the side of the road, smack a picture of the Dalai Lama to their forehead and drive off (I didn't, I just wanted to). This scene reminded me of a young woman I used to work with who claimed to be gay and tried very hard to portray herself as some hip nouveau flower child, but she had Bush/Cheney stickers in her office cubicle! Was she really gay or did she just want to try to shock people? If so, why in the world would she be showing support for Bush and Cheney? Or, maybe she was gay and she wanted to shock people (like me) with the Bush/Cheney sticker as a joke? I might believe the latter, except that she did in fact work for the Bush campaign. Ugh!
Of course, the car I saw yesterday isn't the first time I've seen walking (or in this case, driving) contradictions. I've seen more than one soccer mom's mini van plastered with the cute little Grateful Dead dancing teddy bears (though they aren't really dancing) on one side and a GOP sticker (any one will do) on the other side. Do these moms know who the Grateful Dead were? Do you know what they stood for? The Grateful Dead was a band that used and promoted the use of drugs, including marijuana and LSD (I'm not knocking them. I enjoy the Dead). The cute little teddy bear design is the artwork that appeared on the History of the Grateful Dead, Vol. 1 (Bear's Choice)
--Fortuitous Observer
