CREEDE HINSHAW: Troubling signs on the road

I often wonder what motivates people to put bumper stickers on their vehicles. Sometimes the messages are quite clear and other times they are vague. Some messages make me ponder, others make me laugh and some leave me angry.

On more than one occasion I have found myself speeding up a bit (I am not recommending this) to peek at the driver and see if there is any visual correlation between the motorist and the message.

Here are two messages I saw the past couple of weeks, both troubling in their own ways. Neither was technically a bumper sticker. People are finding many places to leave their messages these days.

The first one was what I’d call a tailgate message. It was a decal affixed to the rear door of an SUV. The message was five words long, only four of which I can print in this column.

In pink words, the final (unprintable) word larger than the other 4 words combined, was emblazoned this message:

Don’t ask me 4

S – – –

I was flabbergasted by this message. It was crude and depressing. Who would put such a message on a vehicle? And why?

Everybody asks for something at some time, even if it is just a plea for kindness or mercy. Life would be bleak if we had nothing to give or nobody from whom to seek help/assistance.

Part of the joy of life is giving or sharing. Every human has been a receiver and has asked for many things, including the sour person who affixed that curmudgeonly message. A strong case could be made that whoever displayed that sticker was asking for something: to be left alone.

Were those five pink words, blurted out to the world, the work of a very bitter person who believed he/she had been taken advantage of many times? Had this person been asked one time too many by his/her own family for help? Did he believe he’d given far more than he’d received?

Although the license plate did not have the vanity plate SCROOGE, the plate did reveal one intriguing, though inconclusive detail. The SUV’s license plate, issued by the state of Florida, was a Disabled Veteran plate, a fact that deepened the mystery. Was the driver a disenchanted veteran who had received a raw deal from the government? He or she had received – if nothing else – a free tag from Florida.

I saw the other message in North Georgia, this on the back window of a large white pickup truck. The words said Give Peace a Chance, which I initially found to be positive and hopeful. But as I pulled closer to the truck I saw the rest of the message.

Beneath the words was a silhouette of an AK-47, making the message about 2nd Amendment rights rather than a prayer for or plea for diplomacy. It was cleverly designed, I had to begrudgingly admit, but the message that snuck up on me was comfortless.

Peace and assault weapons can, I suppose, go together under the right circumstances, but this is hardly the message of the Prince of Peace himself.

Contact Creede Hinshaw, a retired Methodist minister, at [email protected].