Monday, February 6, 2012

“My marine can pick off your honor student at five hundred yards.”


Bumper sticker on a car I often sit behind while waiting to pick up my daughter from kindergarten: “My marine can pick off your honor student at a click and a half.”

Mature response:  I suppose this is meant to be funny, a snappy retort to those who brag about their children on their car bumpers.  Unfortunately, joking about shooting people generally just isn’t funny.  Additionally, when someone brags about their kids and you respond by lauding your child’s marksmanship it makes you seem jealous and your child stupid.  “Your son might be smart but my son could shoot him.”  It wouldn’t be my first response.  Of course, I wouldn’t respond.  That’s probably the biggest problem with this bumper sticker.  Why do you need to respond?  What is there really to respond to?  Why does a child’s academic achievement warrant any response, and particularly such a nasty one?  Expressing such a sentiment just displays your own ignorance, pettiness, and anger.  I sincerely hope that if you have chosen to put this bumper sticker on your car, every day someone asks you to explain what exactly you were thinking.

Not so mature response:  I’m glad for your son.  You must be mighty proud.  It’s too bad, though, that he can’t actually pick off my son without landing in jail.  It’s also too bad he doesn’t have a more marketable skill.

3 comments:

  1. So protecting your freedoms and those around you by putting their life in harms way and making endless sacrifices is worthless? Being a warrior, a modern day Spartan is an unmarketable worthless skill? Go tell that to the countless widows and mourning parents. You're an imbicil.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You didn't actually read what I wrote. What is awful about this bumper sticker is the way in which it makes violence, horrible violence, into a punch line. It just isn't funny to talk about shooting other people's children. Also, it just shows reveals insecurity.

      I did not ever say there was anything wrong with being a soldier. The problem isn't that his son is a soldier, the problem is that he isn't secure enough to simply be proud of his son without attacking other people.

      Also, it would be nice if you could express your viewpoints without being insulting. Name calling doesn't strengthen your argument, it just makes it look like you do not have one.

      Delete
  2. Dear Mr. Gonzales,

    I have been thinking some more about your response. I think it is important to make clear that you could have responded differently. You could have responded something like this ... "I understand what you are saying about the violent nature of this bumper sticker, but I think you could have made your point without suggesting that soldiers are not worth as much as people who have gone to college." Then, rather than wondering whether you had really read what I wrote and getting caught up in your name calling and general nastiness, I could have said something like this ... "I completely understand what you are saying. I was well aware when I wrote this that it might offend some folks. My idea was to respond critically and in kind to what I considered to be base and vile ignorance. That way, I would be making a reasoned argument but also be putting up a mirror to the ugliness I saw in the bumper sticker. I can understand why not everyone might appreciate that approach, but I thought it was appropriate. I believe that soldiers have many marketable skills and make an important contribution to society, both as soldiers and after their service is complete. I actually think this bumper sticker demeans them by reducing them to savages whose only redeemable quality is their ability to kill. What do you think about the bumper sticker? How do you think this sort of thing should be responded to, if at all ..." Then, rather than a nasty exchange filled with name calling we would have had a discussion ... we would have had dialogue. I think it’s kind of sad that you did not opt to take this approach, and I really think all you accomplished is painting a negative picture of yourself.

    ReplyDelete