Some Americans are very confused! Not just the daffy sorts one sees in the news or at the Academy Awards. This morning I saw a perfectly ordinary minivan with two bumper stickers. The first advertised the Punkin Chunkin World Championship in nearby Delaware. What is Punkin Chunkin, you ask? 
At a Punkin Chunkin a bunch of guys (and a precious few women) get together to see whose contraption can toss a pumpkin the farthest. Why? Just for fun! The ingenuity is amazing and the spectacle is worth the trip. It's a man thing to do.Nothing really daffy about that, nothing out-of-the-ordinary for an American anyway. That same fun-loving, tech-tinking, innovative spirit led Henry Ford to develop the automobile, Thomas Edison the light bulb, and Steve Jobs the personal computer. No, it was the juxtaposition of this bumper sticker with the other one that made me blink:
Many conservatives believe the 2004 election marked a turning point. I am not convinced. The election was quite close and if Kerry had only listened a bit more that could have swung enough votes to put him in the White House. How that could result in a "stronger America" is beyond me, save for my deepest nightmares.
The minivan with the dissonant bumper stickers is symptomatic of an America that would rather the Global War on Terror didn't exist at all. Would that we all could just keep on chunkin.
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