This was a great Thanksgiving weekend with all kinds of things to make me smile, but as I’m about to enter the new week, something rather unpleasant is sticking in my craw. This morning as I was going through the McDonald’s drive thru, getting my daily Egg McMuffin, I couldn’t help but notice the bumper sticker affixed to the car ahead of me, which said: Learn English, or Get The Hell Out. By the way, we’re talking about a fairly nice-looking car (similar to the vehicle I was driving) and this was the only bumper sticker on it. (No confederate flag decals.)
I can’t stop thinking about that bumper sticker, first of all (to be perfectly honest) because it resonated with me a tiny bit. I have believed for a long time that it is exceedingly important for people who live in the U.S.A. to learn English so they can fully function as citizens…. in the same way that if I were to move to Vienna, Austria to live and work, I would consider it my civic duty to learn German. And towards that end, I do get a little irritated whenever I use an ATM, for instance, and find every set of instructions given both in English and Spanish. I am all for a little more “tough love” and a little less “enablement” if it will hasten the day when all of us will be able to talk amongst ourselves as good neighbors should do and need to do.
That’s the 3% of me that agrees with that bumper sticker. The other 97% of me finds it to be revolting and disgusting and offensive….. as well as mean and stupid ……. and above all, Un-American. Whoever wrote that bumper sticker- and whoever chose to affix it on the rear end of their car- seems oblivious to what has made America such an amazing nation, and surely they know nothing of the Statue of Liberty and those warm-hearted words with which she has greeted millions upon millions of immigrants: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. How one can square those generous and encouraging words of welcome with “get the hell out” is beyond me. . . and when you stir in the fact that there are long waiting lists at both the Kenosha and Racine Literacy Councils for their classes, that bumper sticker seems even meaner and more out of touch.
My main point, though, isn’t even so much about the mean- spiritedness of these particular words….. but rather of how a bumper sticker cannot possibly capture the complexity and nuance of a difficult question. There’s no room for “on the other hand” or “just keep in mind that” or “nevertheless” —- no way to acknowledge that a given issue might have more than one side to it. By its very nature a bumper sticker is likely to be one-sided and blunt ….. and simplistic. And unfortunately, more and more people seem content to hold opinions that are just that one-sided and simplistic, which is such a shame – and so boring! I’m reminded of a moment in the interview I did with Todd Gitlin, one of the most important peace activists back in the 1960’s and 70’s, and the author of “Letter to a Young Activist.” He told me that he when he showed up at a 2001 peace rally against our invasion of Iraq, he wanted to carry a sign saying “Exercise Restraint in Iraq” – but was discouraged from doing so because that would be an overly complex and mixed message.
Picket signs have their purpose, and so do bumper stickers. They turn our heads. They make us laugh. They make us cringe. They make us think. But if you embrace opinions that are easily and entirely captured on them, think again. And again. Please. Because maybe – just maybe – there is something more to consider.