Down here, most people are surprised by the "Obama 08" bumper sticker next to an Alabama license plate on my Ford F150, four-wheel drive pickup. As a church-going, white-male, hunting, fishing, forester, living in the Deep South, how in the world could I support Obama?
To exacerbate the issue, my wife placed another "Obama 08" on our little blue Saturn which has firefighter license plates (I'm on the Dixie Volunteer Fire Department.) and our son-Joseph's car-seat in the back.
After church service the Sunday before last, we decided to eat at Ofelia's, a small Italian restaurant in Andalusia. Parking the car out front at 1:30 in the afternoon, we enjoyed our meal and walked back outside to find the rear, driver's side-window smashed in. The window had been struck hard enough that small glass shards covered Joseph's car seat. Nothing was stolen.
While the restaurant staff vacuumed glass from Joseph's car-seat, I wondered how or why this happened.
Did the window spontaneously explode inward? Is "window-shattering" a possible side-effect of Global Warming? I don't think so.
Did an English sparrow somehow evolve super-sonic flight, accidentally crashing into the window before recovering and leaving the scene? The absence of feathers disproved this notion.
Did someone hate firefighters? My Saturn has sported the same license plate for years and no one had broken out the windows before, or to my knowledge, any of my fellow firefighters' car windows.
Or, was it the Obama 08 sticker? There are no guarantees in this world, but I think we found the likely culprit.
Calling ALFA insurance Monday morning, they arranged for SafeLite Solutions to come out and replace the window at our home in the Pleasant Home Community. Since I have a ZERO deductible with my insurance policy, the window was replaced free of charge.
Relating the incident to a diehard Republican co-worker, she said "You should take the bumper-sticker off the car before it happens again." I indignantly replied "That's what they want! There's no way in hell I am giving in to intimidation!" She followed up "Well, I imagine a person with "W" sticker would see the same thing up North." I shook my head, "I don't think so. And I hope not."
Sensing an opportunity to turn this event from a negative to a positive, I'll find out what it cost to replace a car window, and I'll donate those additional dollars to Obama's Campaign.
Having not seen another Obama 08 sticker in my numerous trips across the South, I joyfully noted another one just last week, on a student's car at Auburn University.
I hope they have good insurance.