TKID4 remembers a traumatic incident in his childhood when his father and a passing motorist engaged in a profanity-laced exchange on the highway. TKID4 was six years old, and he and his family were on their way home from Thanksgiving Dinner. It occurred to this first grader that the inhibitions of people fade as they drive. Where one would not imagine cursing a passing person on the street or unleashing an air horn in the direction of a man and his family, motorists perform such feats instinctively and often without provocation. Country music singer/songwriter babe Chely Wright had a similar experience to that of TKID's and penned a top 10 song in response. The song is about an encounter Chely had with a fellow driver. TKID4 decided to analyze the lyrics of the highly popular jingle to see if he and Chely shared in common the wounds and healing that such a traffic confrontation induced trauma can cause. TKID4 discovered, no such comparisons existed. Here are the lyrics:
I've got a bright red sticker on the back of my car
Says United States Marines
And yesterday a lady in a mini-van held up a middle finger at me
Does she think she knows what I stand for
Or the things that I believe
Just by looking at a sticker for the U.S. Marines
On the bumper of my SUV
- The opening stanza reveals a major assumption and arguably fatal flaw in Chely's opus. She assumes that the woman driver's motivation for shooting the bird is caused by the patriotic if caustic bumper sticker. Perhaps it was Chely's poor driving that started the confrontation. Perhaps the woman disagreed with Chely's choice of automobile, an SUV which many argue create the types of dependencies on foreign fossil fuels which necessitate U.S. military interventions overseas. Feminists should decry the stereotype this song reinforces regarding the ineptitude of women drivers. They should also lighten up.
See, my brother Chris, he's been in for more than 14 years now
Our dad was in the Navy during Vietnam
Did his duty then he got out
And my grandpa earned his purple heart
On the beach of Normandy
That's why I've got a sticker for the U.S. Marines
On the bumper of my SUV
- Here Chely is quite defensive in justifying her use of the sticker. She is obviously proud of her family's military heritage, but strangely doesn't explicitly state that any of those members served in the Marines. We don't know where "Chris" is serving or in what capacity, but the vagueries of the statement lead TKID4 to think he may be in the Penn. "Dad" was in the Navy during Vietnam, but we don't know where he was stationed and if he actually served in the Vietnam area of operations, and Grandpa, while a battlefield hero, would have been in the Army or Navy if he served in the European theater in WWII, not in the Marines. There is also the cryptic line about her father doing his duty and then getting out. It is as if she is apologizing for him taking part in the Vietnam conflict and stressing that he had no choice and ceased as soon as he was able. TKID4 wonders how many U.S. servicepersons feel that way at present.
But that doesn't mean that I want war
I'm not Republican or Democrat
But I've gone all around this crazy world
Just to try and better understand
Yes, I do have questions
I get to ask them because I'm free
That's why I've got a sticker for the U.S. Marines
On the bumper of my SUV
- More anti-war rhetoric, and a disavowing of the U.S. two party system. TKID4 wonders if Chely is a member of the Green party, or maybe the Libertarians, or possibly the socialists, given her anti-Vietnam stance above. Perhaps she isn't registered to vote. But she has traveled the world in search of answers to her "questions." She discusses this more in the next anti-warish stanza.
'Cause I've been to Hiroshima
And I've been to the DMZ
I've walked on the sand in Baghdad
Still don't have all of the answers I need
But I guess I wanna know where she's been
Before she judges and gestures to me
'Cause she don't like my sticker for the U.S. Marines
On the bumper of my SUV
- Is Chely speaking of her personal experiences or of the war record of Marines in these lyrics? The reference to Hiroshima appears to be a thinly veiled attack on U.S. war time policies. And if she is referring to the Korean peninsula DMZ, this might be an exposure of prior U.S. military failings. The overall theme is developing here of supporting the troops while questioning the war. However Chely's version has the pseudo-patriotic delivery that John Kerry lacked when grumbling the same message last fall. Before the straddling theme is totally developed, the writer jumps back into the cat fight with the minivan driver. There is the assumption, bordering on clinical paranoia, that Chely is being "judged" by this random person. This suspicion turns to homicidal rage below. A hint of things to come is found when Chely obsesses about the driver's background and "where she's been."
So I hope that lady in her mini-van
Turns on her radio and hears this from me
As she picks up her kids from their private school
And drives home safely on our city streets
Or to the building where her church group meets
Yeah, that's why I've got a sticker for the U.S. Marines
On the bumper of my SUV
- Chely appears to know an awful lot of personal information on this random person. Has she been stalking this poor woman to learn her habits? I've heard of road rage but this is premeditation all the way. Chely knows about her family, where her children go to school, what church they attend. The record exec's may have forced her to drop the line, "And I won't stop until they are all dead." Either that or Chely is making the kind of assumptions about this woman based on the fact she is a female driving a mini van as this woman is accused of doing about the singer and her sticker.
