Stuck On You

I'm curiously fascinated by the little (in some cases, not so little) decals that people have made up to place on their car windows, a memorial to friends and kinfolk gone on. And you know what; I really think they had their origins when everyone back in '01 was running around buying stickers to salute Dale Earnhardt Sr (1951 - 2001 - Gone To Race In A Better Place.)

I believe everyone saw those stickers and said it was a good idea, so let's get one made up to say goodbye to our kith and kin. I wonder if the dearly departed look down from their clouds and offer a special "Clarence from It's a Wonderful Life" blessing on cars bearing their name and threnodic words.

I hope we don't have to see stickers lamenting the end of the dream of a better society for all. Funny, this Glenn Beck thing with the "let's go back to acting like we did on 9/12/01" society. I was still with 911 on that day, and that's when everyone started calling to report that their neighbors were "foreign-looking" and bringing home blue plastic bags of who-knows-what at night (the better, one presumed, to make a hummus bomb.) Yes, there was a time of national closeness and an upsurge in patriotism and kindliness, but also fear and suspicion and finger-pointing and arm-flailing retaliation that we don't need to see again. Or need again.