Yeah, you read that right.
So today we're driving back from TJ Maxx, rockin' out to "Hey Oh," buffalo wings and other goodies in tow, sun shining (it was 81 out!), wind blowing through our hair and all that business; and what do I see off to my right but a giant purply/violet/blue billboard with the words
ACRES OF GUNS AND GEAR
overlaying the letters
N.R.A.
Yeah, you read that right.
Oh, but that's not all. I live in a place where, Brad jokes, they don't even bother to take down the "gun bash" yard signs from year to year - they just cross out the old date and write the new one in; a place where a local church has a billboard out front with a picture of newlyweds (white, middle-class, and heterosexual, of course!) surrounded by, "Marriage: God's Plan for Safe Sex"; a place where yet another billboard - this time, one of those electric kinds - provides a list of ways to cut local school taxes, one of which is "Raise class sizes from 18 to 30 students."
So, if I'm interpreting the (frightening) general sentiment floating around here, we've got, basically, Buy guns; if you get HIV, it's your own fault, you sinner; who cares if our kids actually learn anything in school if we can save money? oh, and screw those greedy teachers!; and, Buy guns (plus, government restrictions are an embodiment of evil).
I'd sigh, but Brad's asleep so no one would hear me. (If someone sighs in her living room and there's no one awake to hear . . . . ) And believe me, these are not the only worrisome things I've noticed here outside the city (we're not even that far away - less than 35 minutes if the traffic's not bad) . . . it's just that these things are posted on signs (!).
Last weekend Brad was lamenting billboards, talking about how they're eyesores. Given that and all the above examples of, well, I don't even know what to say at 11:44 p.m., I'm really starting to understand his pronouncement: "If I were president, I'd make billboards illegal." Amen.
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