Hmmm, sounds subversive

I love San Francisco. The city is beautiful and the weather is right up my alley. In fact, there are so many things I love about San Fran that I could spend three years just writing about that. But not today. Today I am going to describe why I love San Francisco despite some of the people here.

I know that sounds really harsh, and maybe I'm just being "uptight," as J has frequently accused me of being. But here's the thing: This is a city that prides itself on being openminded. Yet, the very people who tout themselves for being so accepting seem to live by the motto "I'm more openminded that you'll ever be. And my opinion is definitely more important than yours." It's a very high-school attitude, this idea that one is rebelling against the restraint of older generations, not to make the world better, but to prove a point.

When I moved to South Carolina from my ultra-liberal college town, I went into major culture shock. Even now, I'm not sure I could ever move back. I love so much about the South, but there are also many things about southern culture that make me feel like I'm losing my mind. Living in Columbia, SC for four years did, however, teach me several important lessons. The most critical, I think, being that "openmindedness swings both ways." To be truly openminded, we have to be tolerant not only of the things more "liberal" than we tend to be, but also of things more "conservative." I hate using those two words, because they tend to imply a political agenda, and that's not my point at all. What I'm saying is that I firmly feel that we should think about our own beliefs and lifestyles, not just blindly follow a trend or a stereotype. On the flip side of the coin, we should be able to accept that others are allowed to make these same choices. I think being judgemental of anyone else's beliefs, regardless of where they are on the spectrum of social convention, makes us judgemental people.

Granted, if I do something that hurts another person, that's an entirely different story. But we really don't need to go there right now. I'm already wildly off-topic, and way too serious for what I was intending to write about. Ahem. So, back to what I was talking about before:

A bumper sticker.

Walking down the street today to board my beloved MUNI, a bumper sticker on the back of a car caught my eye. The sticker was shiny and new, not scuffed or covered with dirt, meaning that it had been applied within a day or two. The sticker read, solely:

Hail to the Thief

Alrighty, folks, I hate W. It boils my blood that that moron is the leader of anything! But come on. The "Thief" of what? What did he steal? I don't get it. Here is a classic case of someone saying to him/herself "Hey, that sounds subersive! That'll prove to everyone exactly how liberal and badassed I am by putting it on my car!" I mean, really. Let's at least think about what we believe in, rather than just slapping up a sticker! A sticker that, frankly, doesn't even make sense!

The last thing I have to say on the topic is this:

Oh yeah, you're a badass for putting your anti-Bush sticker on your car in San Francisco, where everyone and their grandmother agrees with you. Let's see you do that in Columbia, SC. Then you'll be brave.