Are you practicing what your bumper sticker preaches?

So there I was a couple Friday mornings ago, driving along Government Way in Spokane heading to work.

A dark gray Subaru wagon-type car had been dogging my rear ever since I turned onto the road off Fort George Wright Way, heading past the cemeteries. Even though I was going 40 miles per hour in a 35 mph zone, apparently I wasn’t going fast enough for the driver.

When I finally got to the point where Government Way becomes two lanes, at the turnoff towards Indian Canyon, I pulled into the right hand lane to let the car go by, and sure enough, she — it was a woman — went flying past. Going through the winding portions of the road I was still doing 5 mph above the 30 mph speed limit — and the woman in the Subaru must have easily been doing 10 – 15 mph faster.

It happens a lot on that stretch of road, so what got me wasn’t the fact this person was exceeding the speed limit. It was one of the half-dozen signs/bumper stickers displayed on the vehicle’s rear — the infamous “Baby On Board.”

The message’s meaning is obvious. That is, because there is an infant in this car, we expect everyone near the vehicle to make sure they are operating their vehicle safely so as not to endanger the child. In fact, the rest of us should be doing more than what is legally required.

Fair enough. But shouldn’t that also apply to the driver too? In this case, I could see at least a child’s seat, but not a child so I don’t know if the woman was packing an infant around or not.

Perhaps it’s only applicable if the baby is actually on board. If not, all bets are off about safety.

I’m not the first person to notice someone acting contrary to the manner they ask us all to follow via a bumper sticker or window sign. A friend of mine went on a long email diatribe couple months back because he encountered someone doing anything but “Coexist,” as their bumper sticker suggested.

Displaying bumper stickers and window signs on our vehicles is an interesting modern custom. It’s sort of a drive-by, belief-projection system — we can let complete strangers know how we feel about any number of topics without having to actually stick around and account for what we profess.

Some of what is said can be profane, insulting and even ugly. But then that’s what passes these days as normal human interaction.

We’re all about the in your face, say whatever comes to your mind about anything attitude. That’s particularly important if you don’t know anything about the topic but quickly need to have some sort of opinion to express, least you be deemed uninformed and out of touch, instead of simply prudent and responsible.

Try to act differently, with restraint and respect for someone else’s feelings or beliefs, and you’re branded with the dreaded “political correctness.” God forbid!

Some vehicle displays can be thought provoking. Others are funny, but sometimes at the expense of specific individuals and/or groups.

Some bumper stickers and signs attempt to tell us how we should feel and act — or else.

Really, this is probably normal human behavior. We like to let people know how we act — because we’re good and moral — while pointing out the supposed deficiencies of others and what they need to do to rectify the problem — because they’re (you’re, I’m) bad and immoral.

But often, this leads to acting contrary to our professed beliefs, like the woman dangerously breaking the law while displaying the “Baby on Board” sign.

Perhaps the easiest way to avoid this would be to simply not display any signs or stickers. That way, we’re not accountable.

The best way, though, might be to every now and then reread and think about what we actually profess.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].