Election Gripes

First of all, someone stole my Obama sign from my front yard. Not just mine, either, but mine and several (though not all) Obama signs in the neighborhood. The few McCain signs were left as is.

I'd planned for this moment. I'd bought 4 signs, put one out on my yard, gave one to a neighbor and held on to the other two as back up.

See, back in 2004, some horse's ass at the YMCA peeled my John Kerry bumper sticker right off the back of my car. I'm positive where it happened, and you could even see where they'd picked at every corner until they found one they could get their grimy nails under.

Not much makes me angry, but stuff like this I find absolutely infuriating. I mean, it makes my blood absolutely boil, and for many reasons. First, it's just plain wrong. It's stealing, or vandalism, or both. Second, it's something that I would never do in my wildest dreams. I think George Bush is the spawn of Satan. I think Dick Cheney IS Satan. Don't get me started on Palin and McCain. But I'd never in a million years actually physically remove a bumper sticker or yard sign. You just don't do it. Thirdly, the people who do this are spineless weenies who don't have the guts to ever do any of these things in the light of day, or when I'm present, or both. At least the bunghole who yelled "Feingold SUCKS" at me while he was behind me at the drive through at Culver's stood the chance that I may retaliate (I didn't). Of course, I'm also quite sure he wouldn't have yelled such a thing if I hadn't been alone in my car, or if I'd been a man. Yeah, those tough guys yelling crap at women. Very impressive.

I have no problem when people disagree with me politically. But to take something of mine...what's the point? Am I not going to vote now? Or...do they think these things are irreplaceable? Are they trying to scare me?

My neighbor and I got together though, and our plan is that we take our signs down after dark. My neighbor is up before dawn, and he puts them out again. Take that, sign stealers!

I have 2 bumper stickers on my car. One that says "Obama '08" and one that says "Got hope? www.barackobama.com." I've gotten some dirty looks. I feel a certain amount of vulnerability, especially since this election is near a close and things have gotten a bit ugly. But it's important to me that I show my support, and I have every right to do so.

Now, I'm not prone to hyperbole, so keep that in mind when I tell you this story. None of it is exaggerated.

I make a habit of being a conscientious driver. I've been driving especially conscientiously since I put the bumper sticker on (and thankfully it's been there for months and months). It may sound silly, but I feel somehow that I'm representin'.

So yesterday I hit the road to get to my WW meeting. It's during the height of rush hour, and I have a particularly speedy, quiet way to get there. I actually end up driving through the neighborhood where I grew up. These are very quiet, narrow streets. The speed limit is 25, with good reason. There is a grade school nearby, and it always has been a kid-centric area. So I'm driving down the road, listening to the radio, probably going about 25, though it's actually hard to reach that speed because of the numerous stop signs. There is a red truck behind me. I stop at a 4 way intersection. I'm not a "roll through" stopper. I'm not a "slow down" person. When it says stop, I stop.

So, I stopped at this intersection. Just as I'm pulling forward, the red truck behind me floors it, runs the stop sign and passes me. Passes me. On a quiet street. At 5:00 in the afternoon. As I turned in disbelief I saw he was muttering something, God knows what, and that the back of his truck was covered in bumper stickers. He was actually moving so quickly that the only word I was able to pick up was "republican."

So he sped down the street, and proceeded to run another stop sign while turning left. I was slack-jawed, to be honest. And pissed of course. This is the neighborhood where I grew up. There are children everywhere. I mean, honestly, was it so disturbing to him to have an Obama supporter in front of him that he felt the need to act the way he did?

Of course, what usually happened in these situations happened. He was stopped at a red light and I pulled up right next to him (meaning, of course, that his little episode did nothing more than burn gas, because he didn't end up any further ahead than I). He was going straight, I was turning right, so I took the opportunity, as I was checking for ongoing traffic, to pull ahead, wait until he looked in my direction, smile and flip him off.

Yes, I flipped him off. This isn't a normal habit. This isn't something I do other than jokingly to family and friends. And it's something that I somewhat regret because, as I said, I'm representin'. But amigos, it was just something I had to do. It actually was quite funny, because I don't think the guy had any idea that I was the person he had dissed. See, when he looked at me, I smiled, and he smiled back. :) That's what made my middle finger gesture so rewarding. The look on his face was priceless. It looked like he was thinking "Why did that woman just flip me off?" A mixture of shock and puzzlement. Then I was able to turn right and proceed on my merry way.

Immature? Sure. Not representin'? Yeah, sorry to say. Rewarding? You betcha.