I See Scary People.

I'll never forget The Sixth Sense.  I can still hear and see Haley Joel Osment saying "I see dead people".

Yesterday, as I was driving, I saw something that made me utter out loud, "I See Scary People".  More over the flip.

I had a sixth-sense moment earlier today (literally 20 minutes before sitting down to write this diary), as I was traveling back from the Whole Foods with my asian tofu and cabbage crunch (dinner - yum!).  I live in Northern Virginia.  Generally speaking, I consider this part of the US to be affluent.  The median household income is $100,318 and median family income $119,812.  The percentage living in poverty in my county is 5.3%, well below the latest national average (2006) of 12.3%.  My area also enjoys a high rate of college graduates - 55.9% in 2004.

I don't know if that explains my shock at the car (and its bumper stickers) I followed home from the Whole Foods.

The first thing that catches my eye is this (sorry - couldn't find a graphic, but the bumper sticker itself was about as plain as this):

QUESTION EVOLUTION

Huh.  Have to say, that's the first time I've seen that one.  So we pull up to a traffic signal (which was red at the time) and I got to take in all the stickers on this guy's car.  This was a beauty:

Given the first few, I wasn't surprised to see this prominently displayed:

But the one that really got my attention was this:

AHHHH... Answers in Genesis!!  Among other things, these are the fine folks that believe the Bible says dinosaurs walked the earth with man a mere 5,000 to 6,000 years ago!!  I thought it was ridiculous the first time I heard it - but to see it on a bumper sticker was simply absurd.

There was other stuff - a sticker that said something to the effect of "Making the World Safe For Bumper Stickers".  There was one of those letters-in-a-circle stickers that indicates some geographic area or another.  The back was so full with the ones I've highlighted as well as a few others that the stickers had moved onto the side of the vehicle, in the quarter-glass behind the backseat window.  Should I even have to tell you what was there??

First,

And then, of course:

And then, of course - like a punchline:

I was literally shocked.  We don't see a lot of Answers-in-genesis-question-darwin paraphernalia on our cars in this area.  I looked at the guy's plate - Virginia - and I checked his front windshield (after zipping around and in front of him so he could get a good glimpse of MY bumper sticker - more on that in a moment) for the telltale Fairfax County tax sticker.  It was there.  This guy could be my neighbor.

I learned something - Crazy far-right religious Republicans live near me.  I see scary people.

My bumper sticker??  It's this one:

I've also ordered and will be adding this one:

But I REALLY wish, as I whipped around and in front of him, that I had this one on the back:

Support doesn't have to look just one way.  As to the creation stuff, I would have liked to have this one on my car:

That would have answered their darwin-eating truth.  And to deal with the issue of the dinosaurs, this would have been nice:

Or perhaps a more general question, unlike the "QUESTION EVOLUTION" sticker, to put back to other driver:

Maybe, just as a slap in the face, I could have included this:

Pretty much sums it up.

I've seen diary after diary here, in calmer times, from those of you who live in areas that are literally dominated by people who believe Answers in Genesis and think that it's criminal that Intelligent Design isn't being taught in their local public school (I'm sure they would have it replace any and all forms of sex education, but I digress).  When I've read those diaries and comments, I've thought to myself, "Man.  I'm glad i don't live in a place like THAT."

Well, apparently I do.

I see scary people.