People love to follow trends, whether in fashion, music or
politics. They can be like lemmings, blindly following the drone in
front of them, without any conscious thought of their own.
The problem is, even though I’m conscious of this problem,
I’m no different than your average trend-following robot, and
neither are you. I think we need to stray from this perilous path
of unquestioning acquiescence and be more skeptical of everything
we do.
It’s no secret that many people on campus are adamantly
anti-Bush. What worries me is that some of these students are just
anti-Bush because it’s popular. People jump on this liberal
bandwagon because it’s the cool thing to do, not because they
actually know enough about politics to disagree with anything.
Now, I don’t claim to know much about politics. In fact, I
hate the subject and try to avoid it at all costs. In my
experience, booze-fueled political debates usually don’t end
with hugs. Still, I think it is important to talk about this
political beast and the anti-anything liberals that it has
spawned.
When lumber saleswoman Lorrie Heasley was escorted off of a
Southwest Airlines flight for wearing an offensive, politically
charged T-shirt, I had to question the reasoning behind her
interesting choice of apparel. The shirt she wore had images of
President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice, along with a clever phrase derived from the
popular movie, “Meet the Fockers”. The phrase on the
T-shirt was a bit more explicit than the movie title, and with one
simple vowel changed; the message was quite clear.
But what was Heasley’s message? Does she really think Bush
and his cohorts are “Fockers” with a “u,”
or did she just like the shirt and its abrasive and popular liberal
message? In a Daily Telegraph article, Heasley was quoted as saying
“I just thought it was hilarious,” going on to say she
wore the shirt as a joke for her Democrat-voting parents.
Southwest Airlines didn’t think her little joke was very
funny, and deemed the T-shirt offensive enough to warrant action
““ and rightfully so. The shirt contained a strong and
much-debated political message that contained the ultimate
four-letter word (a personal favorite of mine).
Passengers on airplanes don’t want to deal with politics
and in-flight expletives; they just want to eat their pretzels, sip
their overpriced cocktails, and try to chat up the pretty girl
sitting next to them.
A shirt like Heasley’s is offensive, and furthermore, it
might actually force these people to think about their political
affiliations, First Amendment rights, and whatever else is popular
head-butting material for liberals and conservatives at the
moment.
In the long run, it doesn’t really matter what Heasley was
thinking when she put on that shirt. She wore it, it offended
people, and now you can find similar T-shirts for sale all over the
Internet. The Radio News America Store, part of the Café Press
online marketplace, has several options for your anti-Bush apparel
needs. Among the myriad items are T-shirts, barbecue aprons,
boxer-shorts, trucker hats, thongs, pins, camisoles, coffee mugs,
messenger bags and artificial sweetener packets ““ wait, maybe
not that last one. At least, not yet.
The online T-shirt retailer, TShirtHell.com has recently
launched a “Free speech or free travel” campaign,
proclaiming to their patrons, “Don’t let airlines
dictate your wardrobe!”
According to their Web site, anyone who is kicked off of any
commercial airline flight for wearing a TShirtHell.com T-shirt will
be provided with alternate transportation to their original
destination, and they will pick up the tab.
Most of their shirts are a bit too much for me, and I would
probably never wear one. But who says someone else can’t?
That whole freedom of speech thing protects this kind of
expression of political angst, even if people do find it offensive.
So, if someone really believes in an offensive, political message,
I think they have every right to wear a shirt that represents this.
These people just have to remember the same freedom that allows
them to wear their shirt, allows an airline to refuse them service.
In the case of Heasley, Southwest had every right to kick her off
that flight, but she also had every right to wear that shirt.
It’s a confusing and age-old debate, and at this point, the
waters are so muddy that no one knows whose rights supersede
whose.
I am not a supporter of Bush, but I would never wear that
T-shirt because I am also not a supporter of blatant
offensiveness.
Furthermore, I don’t support ignorance. I support people
who make educated, conscious decisions before they put their shirt
on in the morning.