I can't believe I, of all people, missed this story last August, but I did. I stumbled across a post about it a week, or so, ago (here: http://enews.org/…ights.html ) and I felt like I had to make a bigger deal out of it. Have a look at that ugly, horrible sample plate. If you own a car in the fine state of Oklahoma, you can decorate your car with this thing for just $37 (http://www.tax.ok.gov/…45.html)...
...If you want to.
WHY you'd want to is beyond me. The post I linked to above, written by a guy calling himself "Espresso Sucking Pavement Dweller" or ESPD for short, is all about the lousy design of the plate. ESPD is right--the black on red banner is hardly readable (it looks like it says "944" to me) and the clipart used for the Towers look like completely different buildings. He makes a few other points, including one about how others will criticize this license plate for reasons other than design.
Let me be one of those people. Let's begin:
1) Since when do you have license plates memorializing terrorist acts? Isn't it a little ghoulish to use the deaths of those 3000 people on 9/11/1 as advertising for a war?
2) I'm of the belief that America is stronger than a few thousand Muslim extremists. We can handle anything they can throw at us and the idea that we need to fight "The Global War On Terrorism" seems like over-dramatizing the threat of Al Qaeda and terrorism, in general. If you look at the statistics, cars, cancer and AIDS each kill more people every year than terrorism (more: http://thepete.com/…0-points/).
3) Oklahoma is fighting the war on terror? How's that, exactly? What does Oklahoma have that Al Qaeda wants?
4) As I mentioned in point 1, this plate is just an advertisement for a war--for killing people. Has "The Global War on Terrorism" brought us Bin Laden or even a single conviction on actual terrorism-related charges? So far it seems like this whole thing hasn't meant--well, I could be off color, here, I'll just suggest you refer to the acronym for "The Global War On Terror" only remove the "Global."
As Super Duper Tuesday is tomorrow and the next presidential election is in seven months, don't let 911 and mentions of the wars, Al Qaeda and other fear-mongering scare you into voting for one person or another. Vote with your head--not your fear.
Do I think we should go after Al Qaeda? Definitely. They do want to kill some of us. However, a war on a few thousand people with no country, no army, no nukes, and no obvious hierarchy seems like blatant, soulless, overkill. Plus, it's just what they want us to do.
Who knows? Maybe Bin Laden will see this license plate and give up. But I'm thinking it'll just make us snobby cityfolk point and snicker.
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