Civil War II?

Well well well...all I can say is thank god that our President is a uniter and not a divider, otherwise I might have caught a bullet on a bright September morning, instead of this note! Lookie what some poor coward left on the vehicle I am borrowing. Click either pic for a bigger version.

It was left on Sheri's car at the medical building where my mom's doctor is located. Actual size is about 3 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches, it's a little hard to read, so here's exactly what it says...

"It's hard to tell whether you're ignorant or just another terrorist out to destroy America.

I'll pray for you."

It needs to be pointed out I am using a friend's car, a friend who is even more progressive than me, and her bumper stickers demonstrate this. And I don't bandy the word "coward" about, and I intend to prove this person has earned it on multiple levels, by dissecting the living fuck out of the fan mail.

"It's hard to tell if..."

No duh, because you are basing your opinion of me on bumper stickers on a car that isn't mine. It would be like me judging your own ignorance on this note you left behind...actually, poor analogy, since I am sure that the frightened little person that left this frightened little missive behind actually wrote it and composed it. Well, at least you are just ignorant, and not a terrorist. Sure I agree with most of the bumper stickers, but maybe you've heard the term "Don't judge a terrorist by his bumper stickers?" And by the way, America, what are we going to do about the terrorist's horrifying use of terror bumper stickers? That has to be the greatest threat to our security, the terror novelty bumper sticker...I hope Sheri didn't get too many paper cuts applying these stickers!

"...America." (underlined)

I might have missed the point if you had failed to underline UUhhhhhhh-merica...(thanks Mike Judge)

"I'll pray for you."

You're praying for a terrorist's success? Did 9/11 teach you anything? My, you must be scared if you are that turned around. Or are you praying to God that he take me out on the 405 freeway? You need to pray for yourself, for the following: that God grants you the requisite testicles to live everyday in this country, that He/She/It provides you with enough cojones to actually enjoy the freedom our Constitution grants us (and that you apparently are willing to forgo to prevent a plane from crashing into you) and finally enough intestinal fortitude to issue your complaints directly to my fat face.

Oh yeah, thanks for praying for me. You are clearly my spiritual superior. But can you find it in your heart to forgive Liberal-Pinko-Commie me? Jesus would approve, or so I hear. Don't forget, despite the color of my skin, and the content of my character, I'm an Uhhh-merican too. Somehow the God you worship seems less forgiving than Jesus.

The events I describe occurred on September 18, 2006.

This incident begs the question: will the civil war we've created in Iraq lead to the second American Civil War?

The Republicans are doing everything in their power to prevent their coming loss of political power and status. What they are doing with their rhetoric is creating 2 kinds of people in the US: people that recognize that freedom is worth some risk, and those that are walking around crapping their pants a couple of times a day. Another frightened woman called into Ed Schultz the other day demanding: "What are the Democrats going to do to keep us SAFE?!?" Poor woman; she must live every minute in the fear that terrorists created on 9/11 and that the Bush administration and their supporters have milked for political benefit. And the person that left the note is reacting directly to the things that have been issued from the mouths of people like Bush and Cheney themselves as I see it. Because I think Dubya and his policies suck, a fellow American sees me as an enemy. Does it get any more divided than that? How long before we are at each other's throats?

I feel less and less sympathy for their ilk. To live in freedom requires a bravery. A bravery that is strangled by the promises of safety by the Bushies. Any complaint such as the woman I heard on the radio should be met resoundingly by words from Poor Richard's Almanac, something I and others have quoted more than once:

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Did ol' Ben Franklin himself write this? Probably not, but he did edit the Richard's Almanac, and found enough wisdom in it to decide to include it in the almanac. It is to this day associated with Franklin, suggesting something about the wisdom of his including it. Hopefully our own wisdom allows us to recognize that our freedom has a price. We must take measures to secure our safety, of course, but there are lines that should not be crossed. Otherwise, what are we really protecting?

Giving up freedom here and our moral standing abroad seems like an ass-backwards stance on securing the homeland to me. I am for taking decisive preemptive action where the evidence clearly states that's what's called for, but how can we ever trust this administration after the shoddy intelligence effort on Iraq? It's pretty obvious to me that our actual reasons for invading have yet to be publicly acknowledged.

Too many tangents. Sorry for that.