Sorry We Missed Church...

[kaygore]

Sorry We Missed Church
BY MICHAEL VENTURA

Driving 19th Street in Lubbock alongside the sprawling edifices of
Texas Tech, the little tin-can car in front of me sported quite a
bumper sticker: SORRY WE MISSED CHURCH, WE WERE BUSY/LEARNING
WITCHCRAFT AND BECOMING LESBIANS.

That bumper sticker won't cost you in Los Angeles or Austin, but it
takes rare nerve to paste those words on your tail in the Bible Belt.
(Lubbock has, I am told, more churches per capita than any city
anywhere.) The tin can had Texas plates, and any Texan knows that
sticker won't be taken lightly around here. I had to see who was
driving that car. I pulled up alongside. The driver and her passenger
were women of about 18, maybe 20. They wore tractor hats or maybe
baseball caps, with brims pulled backwards, and they were laughing.
They didn't notice me salute them, and they couldn't know that I was
thinking, Next to these kids, I'm a wuss.

I write under the ever-flimsier protection of the First Amendment.
They drive around a famously right-wing town daring anyone to say them
nay.

Those young women surely know that cops may pull them over on any
pretext. And they must know that – coming out of a movie, say – they
might find their car surrounded by a gaggle of repressed guys in
desperate need to prove themselves real men. To the surprise of many,
Brokeback Mountain is playing in Lubbock – the sight of a cowboy hat
will never be quite the same, will never quite mean what it used to
mean. There are lots of cowboy hats hereabouts, many no doubt a little
less sure of their image because of Brokeback Mountain (they won't see
the film, but they'll see the previews). Insecure cowboy wannabes
won't take that sticker lightly. But, unlike most Americans these
days, those young women weren't letting fear set their limits.

Your freedom may be backed by law, but your freedom can't be given you
by law. You give it to yourself by how far you're willing to go. You
give it to yourself by what stakes you're willing to play for. Do your
loved ones – or your town, or your country – limit how free you are by
what they can and cannot tolerate? How much of that are you willing to
take? Is your freedom limited by your own fear? In this case, the
freedom we're talking about is basic: the freedom to be oneself.
That's what these women were putting to the test – testing themselves,
testing their society. And risking all kinds of hell to do it. East
and West Coast writers pontificating about "the red states" don't
imagine that those very states are also places of the purest
rebellions, where rebels walk their talk on tightropes.


http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2006-02-17/cols_ventura.html

[rox63]

1. Wow, excellent article!

K&R!!!

[kaygore]

2. I thought so

It does take a lot of guts to be just who you are in the Red states!

[seabeyond]

3. excellent. i am two hours up the road in amarillo. this is on my car

you think education is expensive try ignorance

if you arent outraged you arent paying attention

diversity is our strength

black and white peace sign

this town is against hate

silence is the voice of complicity

dissent in wartime can be the highest form of patriotism

when the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace


and a silver peace necklace hanging where everyones cross hangs on my rearview mirror.

now those arent nearly as bold as those young girls. i cant go quite that far. i lug around a couple little kids, hang out at schools a lot. but...... i feel good having these on my car. almost a year now. and i have had no problems. have had positive. man just yesterday in a parking lot told me he liked my stickers, especially the education expensive try ignorance.

thank you for sharing the story. i am thrilled for these girls

[wicket]

4. fantastic!

K & R

:kick:

[formerrepuke]

5. That sticker pokes fun at (notoriously) humorless fundies.. I admire

their pluck.

[Somawas]

6. Great Editorial, If you want to stay free, you first must live free. nt

[MountainLaurel]

7. Fantastic stuff

And he makes such a good point about the dangers that such red-state rebels face.

[niyad]

8. WOW--and people thought I was brave (or nuts) for the two stickers

I had on my car in houston:

"If God had meant texans to ski, SHe would have made bullshit white"

"Remember the Alamo, give texas back"

kudos to those brave and intrepid young women.

[John Q. Citizen]

9. The most daring bumper sticker I've ever read is

Support Your Local Police - Beat Yourself Up!

I don't care what state you live in or what town, that's got to be a perceived invitation for the cops to harass you.

[girl gone mad]

10. Out of state friends ask me why I stay in TX..

Maybe it's because Texas libs are the tough as nails, take-no-prisoners cream of the crop. Ann Richards, Jim Hightower and Molly Ivans aren't flukes.

[Katherine Brengle]

11. Wonderful!!! n/t

[wicket]

12. kick

:kick: