The first bumper sticker was used in 1927 on the Ford Model A. Well, actually it wasn't really a bumper sticker, but more like a piece of fabric attached by wires to the bumper of the car. Forest P. Gill can be credited with creating the modern-day bumper sticker, the kind with the adhesive backing. They can be commercial, religious, secular, funny, or used to show support for your favorite sports team.
With the election season in full swing, the Colored Man has seen his fair share of bumper stickers supporting this candidate over the other. Democrat vs. Republican vs. Tea Party vs. Independent. It's been a real kaleidoscope of varying opinions and thoughts. The majority of times you can look at a bumper sticker, then look at the occupants of the vehicle and sort of put two + two together. But the other day I saw a sticker on a car, whose driver I knew, and was completely thrown for a loop.
Now let me be completely honest. The person is someone whom I know professionally, so we have not had long lunches, and hung out together on Friday's after work. In fact, the only time that we communicate is when we are planning and actually doing something together professionally. In other words, I don't know one thing about her political beliefs. That is until I saw the bumper sticker, which gave me the opportunity to reminisce and think about some things that she had said and quirks she had exhibited.
The bumper sticker told me more than mere words could have ever told me about her. From the bumper sticker and the candidate that it supported, I could ascertain that she didn't believe in Medicaid and other such programs for our senior citizens. I could tell that she believed that it was ok for a restaurant owner to deny me, the Colored Man, entrance into his business due to the color of my skin. I could even tell that if her candidate is elected, she supports his idea to abolish the US Department of Education, the National Endowment for the Arts, and I want even go into the social issues, but will ask you to think of a time when Ozzie and Harriet was the #1 show on television, Lucy and Desi were considered deviants from what was truly "American", and had to be careful that Cuban-born Desi not spend too much time in the sun getting darker, and everyone different lived in a closet. Her candidate wishes to take America back to a time when things were sectioned-off, separated, segregated. Businesses were allowed to run amok of rules and regulations because it was good for the economy. There was no concern for the environment, worker's rights, equal opportunity. sexual harassment. He wants the government to lay down and shut up, and stop butting into people's affairs. He's an undercover tea-bagger, and we all know what they are brewing.
Statistics say that her candidate is mainly supported by white citizens, who have only completed high school. That alone, made what I saw so puzzling. Here is an educated woman supporting someone who thinks that she should be home - barefoot and pregnant. I just don't get it!!! Can she be that lost, confused, and upset that Barack Obama is President?, that she would sell her womanhood down the Ohio River. Surely not!!! Maybe this bumper sticker thing is just a phase, or perhaps she hit her head on the bumper and is suffering from temporary mental health problems.
I have no problem with her political urgings. I am just perplexed as to her rationale for supporting this candidate? Her public endorsement gives me the right to question her opinions, and to look at her in a totally different light. What I might have suspected about her, she has confirmed and let the cat out of the bag, and believe me, the cat was screaming!!!!!
I think that in the future this is one bumper that my long black limo will not get too close to. It's dangerous, uncontrollable, uninsured and just down-right weird and kooky. The Colored Man is not driving in-between, nor backing up, and definitely not parking beside.
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