Caution: Wide Right Turns

Just got back last night from a quick trip from Ann Arbor to Cleveland and back (I 94/ US 23 / I 80/90), and I have to say it was an obstacle course out there. On the way back there were 3 blown tires sitting in the middle of the highway and several others just barely off to the side of the road, obviously knocked there from passing cars. These weren’t just little scraps of rubber – rather they were the entire shell of the freakin’ tire minus the rim. In all my years of driving I had never seen so many entire blown tires in the middle of the road or to the side. What gives? It wasn’t that hot out yesterday. Is there just that much more truck traffic out there now?



Speaking of trucks, even more annoying and distracting was this oft-sighted sign that amidst the Stars and Stripes reads, “Support Our Troops Whenever We Go... No Aid or Comfort to the Enemy. No Way!.




I went back and forth between Ann Arbor and Cleveland all year and never noticed one of these signs until May. I did a google search tonight and found a couple of other blogs had noticed and posted the photos I give above. As some of you familiar with the Cleveland area might note, one photo was taken just West of Cleveland on the Ohio Turnpike near Oberlin, but like I said I’ve seen it all over I 94 in Michigan between Ann Arbor and Jackson too and on several different company trucks, so it's at least an upper Midwest phaenomenon. Unfortunately, my google search does not turn up any group or business responsible for distributing the signs.

I find the phrase and layout rather strange. First of all, why does it say “Whenever” instead of “Wherever”? Is that a typo? And what’s up with the bizarre capitalization and punctuation? Why is the “We” italicized as if the truck driver or owner aren’t sitting on their fat kiesters here in the US too? And what meaning lurks beneath the dots of that mysterious etcetera punctuation?

I’m going to go out on a limb here, but I think it’s safe to hazard that the purveyors of this sign are sending the not-so-subtle message that those of us who believe that the Iraq war is a mistake and not in America’s or the troops’ best interest are giving aid and comfort to the enemy and thus are guilty of treason. Seems to me that this sort of logic is a wide, wide right turn without the right of way.