Hard but Not Too Hard

Anita and I found ourselves behind a dilapidated old blue Chevy van on the way home from Target yesterday. The vehicle, driven by a middle-aged, sullen-looking white dude with a scruffy beard, was adorned with three bumper stickers that we found interesting: “Pray/Vote/Pray,” “Romney/Ryan 2012” and “I Support Stem Cell Research.”

I found these expressions of opinion a little contradictory. I told Anita that advocates for science aren’t known for sitting in church pews and chanting ineffective incantations to unseen, otherworldly deities. She responded that there are a lot of doctors and scientists who embrace religion, who compartmentalize or see no contradiction or are fine with the incongruity.

When Robotron Romney was Governor of Massachusetts in 2005, he vetoed a bill that would have expanded embryonic stem cell research. The flip-flopping equivocator extraordinaire is on record as supporting using adult stem cells and leftover frozen embryos from fertility clinics for research but opposing therapeutic cloning (where scientists create a cloned embryo to harvest stem cells and treat or cure diseases). And Congressman Paul “Eddie Munster” Ryan voted against stem cell research bills in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

Crabby Bearded Guy probably wasn’t thinking of test tubes and microscopes when he slapped the Romney/Ryan sticker on his automobile’s rear.

This brief encounter in south Lansing instigated a conversation in which we pinpointed one of the biggest problems facing the United States today: too many people only care about themselves and their loved ones. The sense of community, the idea of a greater good, of thinking about our neighbors and even the plight of those we don’t know when making our electoral choices, seem out of fashion.

We’ve both heard of folks who unabashedly – even rabidly – support out-of-touch conservatives who disparage science and worship He Who Floats on Clouds and Awards Touchdowns and Emmys until someone they know and/or love suffers a spinal cord injury, develops diabetes, is diagnosed with heart disease or exhibits the telltale signs of Alzheimer’s. Then suddenly they revisit their position on science vs. prayer, take a second look, and decide that prayer alone might not work for everybody after all.

We’ve both met people who insist they know what’s best for everyone based only on what’s best for them – and don’t always relent, repent or concede when confronted with new developments and additional information. And this self-centered short-sightedness accompanies them into the voting booth like a young child or a persistent cough.

Crabby Bearded Guy might be one of the most flexible, complex or progressive fellows around. Maybe different people affixed the stickers, maybe they were on it when he bought it, or maybe it wasn’t even his van. We’ll never know.

We’ll also never know if he tried to take any of ‘em off. He might have. It is difficult to remove bumper stickers but it’s not impossible. And it can be difficult to broaden our perspectives, to look beyond our families to the larger community, to what’s best for the nation, to what furthers humankind. But that isn’t impossible either.

Sources: Associated Press, votesmart.org, U.S. News & World Report.