Arresting Bumper Stickers - Part I

Are bumper stickers a window into the soul? I like to imagine the type of person that belongs to a particular bumper sticker, and why they chose to say that particular thing about themselves and/or their interests for the world to see. Stickers like 'I fish and I vote' don't tend to arouse too much interest, nor the ubiquitous 'Your Rights At Work' campaign stickers. They are simply too common and too broad. Unions and lobby groups send those kind out and sometimes the members use them. End of story from my perspective. Although, I still remember the time I saw an Energy Australia car parked in Centennial Park sporting a sticker reading 'I Work and I Vote', which was nicely counterpointed by the 'worker' sleeping soundly within the vehicle. As one of my friends said, 'I Nap And I Vote' doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

Another time I was stopped behind a van in traffic and noticed with mounting delight a full array of animal rights bumper stickers pretty much all over the back doors and window of the van. First I saw an Animals Australia sticker: 'Live Export: Indefensible' and Animal Lib's 'Ban Battery Cages' and the Animal Lib logo sticker, plus lots more that I am well acquainted with along the meat-is-murder lines and the oft-seen Greenpeace sticker. When the lights changed I attempted to drive up next to their passenger window so I could offer some acknowledgement of kinship. I don't really know what I was going to do, and I was spared the decision when they turned right ahead of me and out of my life.

Other bumper stickers grab my attention for entirely different reasons. The picture, above, illustrates a perfect example of that 'other' kind of bumper sticker. The kind that makes me feel that if I met the owner of sticker at a dinner party it would be a decidedly uncomfortable situation. There might even be tension and hostility if alcohol had already sufficiently disinhibited us before we met. Having said that, I'd love to meet the owner of this particular bumper sticker. The sticker's savage poetry intrigued me. When I first saw it I even wondered where such a thing could be bought!

I've never quite had the brass monkeys to put a bumper sticker on my own vehicle. The boring reason is they cause uneven fading on the duco and the more convincing one is the thought that everyone will think I'm a maddie. And who could possibly stop at one sticker? All too hard, which is why my ride has always been sans sticker.