I was driving to a client appointment this morning in Phoenix, traveling north on 7th Avenue just south of Bethany Home Road, when I noticed a White SUV in front had a fairly unique bumper-sticker that appeared to have been professionally printed. It stated as follows:
‘I LOVE MY COUNTRY”
“BUT I FEAR MY GOVERNMENT”
I happened to pull up on the left of the same vehicle at the next light and noticed the driver was a white woman comfortably over 60 years of age. When the traffic light changed, she turned her vehicle to the right and I continued north, perplexed at her bumper-sticker.
The vast majority of Americans love their country for a variety of reasons, including this writer. If the negative attributes outweighed the positive, we would see an exodus of citizens to other countries, or there would not be millions of people trying to get into the U.S from other countries. Making and comparing lists of what we love about the U.S. might provoke heated arguments or perhaps it might bring us closer together. We have spent too long pointing out everything wrong with our country and our fellow citizens. We might need to balance our various criticisms with some openness towards finding positive attributes in our country, society and fellow citizens.
One unique thing about America has been its foundation more than 200 years ago through a declaration of independence, a violent revolution, and an excellent constitution with various amendments attached over the years to meet changing realities and times. America is not just a geographic entity or a new people built upon blending immigrants from around the world.
America is a group of shared ideals and viewpoints that include (1) respect for the liberties and rights of all individuals balanced with the social needs and legal interests of all citizens; (2) a respect for a vibrant, educated and competitive private sector that financially and socially rewards taking risks and making innovations within a level playing field; (3) fair and scheduled elections to select our public leaders; (4) limited, trustworthy and competent government at all levels dedicated to creating a climate for personal freedom and economic opportunities by providing (a) various systems of public education; (b) adequate transportation, communications and utility infrastructures; (c) an internal system of justice to protect individuals, ideas, and public safety; (d) an adequate national defense against foreign enemies; and (e) yes, even the need for shared sacrifices for the common good. We might not always see evidence of progress or success in all these areas, but those are some of our shared national goals worthy of a great Nation that has been an example for other peoples and nations around the world.
What “government” scares this driver? Is it the Federal, state, county, city, school district, or another group of public servants? Does she mean Social Security, the U.S. Army, the AZ Corporate Commission, the City of Tempe, the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Transportation, and Commerce at the Federal Level? Does she fear the EPA, FBI, CIA, NSA, TVA, or the local police forces, health boards, building commissions, zoning boards, EMS or fire departments? Such a generalization about “government” makes me wonder that she might suffer from pantophobia – the generalized fear of everything – which makes life pretty difficult. Our total public sector constitutes about 25% of all employment and is supported by taxpayers in the other 75% of people who are private sector employers and employees. How she can calmly drive down publicly-financed and maintained streets in an incorporated City of Phoenix is pretty amazing.
I dislike some public elected officials, bureaucrats, and employees at all levels of government throughout the U.S. Some of them have proven themselves to be utterly incompetent, corrupt, lazy, obtuse, uncooperative, out-of-touch, or some combination of those vices. However they are still a minority of all public servants who actually chose their careers with the ideals of competent public service to their fellow citizens. Too many people get caught up in their own institutional mindsets, bureaucracies, and narrow self-interests, regardless of whether they work in the public or private sectors. However, I do not think people should fear “government” unless they are ignorant, uneducated and lazy products of listening too much to the extreme conservative and right-wing talk radio and television entertainers.
We as an electorate actually create, support and determine “government” in all its forms. If you don’t vote or get involved in civic affairs, those we elect and hire as public servants are clueless as how best to serve the public and our collective interests. They may be more fearful of the general electorate than we think since their very livelihoods depend upon periodic voter approval and the willingness of the vast majority of us to pay various taxes, not create civil unrest, stay informed, and participate in the public process.
I feel sorry for this driver and those who share her simplistic bumper-sticker viewpoint. She has publicly expressed such massive ignorance, laziness, fear, anger and irrationality by her trite effort at free speech. The lawyer in me would enjoy publicly cross-examining her for at least an hour, and I would gladly reduce her self-centered, ignorant, nihilistic, vapid, superficial, hypocritical, and needlessly fearful and angry positions to a pile of rubble. That’s possibly a reason so many Americans dislike attorneys so much as they fear that their unsubstantiated opinions cannot stand objective and critical examination and serious factual scrutiny.
We certainly cannot begin to understand and rationally discuss all the complex challenges facing our Nation today if we constantly resort to inane bumper-sticker shibboleths and worthless sound-bite “shtick” on every subject. I disagree with some on TMV who advocate that more bias should be shown by all Media outlooks and members of the Press to further the search for “truth.” That argument has been the supreme intellectual cop-out of the past few decades.
Not all viewpoints are equally valid or worthwhile, and too many people cannot adequately separate opinion from the truth. A responsible media’s first duty is to separate these two as objecively as possible, and then make a good-faith effort to bring some coherent meaning and priority to the flood of information that inundates our lives. Our narcissistically short attention spans, coupled with overall high levels of ignorance and laziness, mountains of useless information provided 24/7 by our info-entertainment news media, and perpetually expanding technological diversions are making insightful, thoughtful, patient, comprehensive and interconnected thinking a complete impossibility for a large number voters.
As much as I love my country, including its great history and vast potential, I am deeply saddened by how low our public discourse has sunk in 2010 as exemplified by this bumper-sticker. It’s going to be very difficult to find any snippet of hope in our unleashed National Pandora’s Box. My hope is that this fearful woman and the minions of like-minded Americans are still the minority. My fear is that they might be the majority who now vote and will continue to vote over the next few decades. If the latter is true, I’d better renew my passport and sharpen my foreign language skills.
Submitted by Marc Pascal, ranting as usual from Phoenix, AZ.