Thursday, February 23, 2012

Coexist Bumper Stickers

I was on the phone with a friend, Steve Kelly, recently while driving. I was heading north on I-94 on my way to teach. I saw a car with a Coexist bumper sticker. Since Steve sees things the way I do, I decided to ask him a question.

“Hey, I am behind a car with one of those Coexist bumper stickers. Guess what kind of car it is?”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Steve replied “A Subaru.”
He was correct. It was a Subaru. Neither of us could recall seeing a Coexist bumper sticker on any other brand of car. Of course, this brought up a lot of questions:
  • Did they only sell these bumper stickers to Subaru owners?
  • Does every Subaru come with one in the glove box?
  • Are Subaru owners the only people who care about the future of the world and mankind?
  • Is there something magical about these cars that makes their owners care more about the future of the world and of mankind?
  • When did they stop slapping “Envision World Peace” bumper stickers on their cars and replace them with Coexist bumper stickers?
  • Where does one even buy a Coexist bumper sticker? 
The Subaru questions were all too metaphysical to solve in one short car ride. But, that last question intrigued us. Where indeed can one buy a Coexist bumper sticker? Neither of us had ever seen one in a store. You can only see them on Subarus. As we were both driving, we did not have access to the Internet which we both knew could provide answers to this question. So, we had a good laugh and drifted off to another inane but less metaphysical question. 

Having finished a days work and having a few minutes before turning in, I recalled the question of where to buy a Coexist bumper sticker. So, I googled it. Here is a big duh... There is a Coexist foundation: http://www.coexistfoundation.net.  

Since 2006, Coexist has been working to promote better understanding between Jews, Christians and Muslims, and between these communities and others, through education, dialogue and research.

I thought I had really hit on something. I looked on the website for a store where I figured I could buy all kinds of items with the Coexist logo from baseball caps to t-shirts and most certainly bumper stickers. But no! No? Really? There is no store. If the Coexist Foundation didn’t create and sell them, where are these bumper stickers coming from?

I looked at the logo of the Coexist Foundation more closely. Something was wrong, it was similar but not the same as the bumper stickers we see melded to the rear of Subarus. The Coexist Foundation only has the Crescent, the Star of David, and the Cross. The blue and white bumper stickers have these icons but also the peace symbol, the Yin-Yang icon, and an ‘e’ that has the male arrow and the female plus sign sticking out of it. I would have never ever guessed there could be two or more different Coexist logos. Why? And why are there only bumper stickers for one of them and why are they only on Subarus? I digress.

The question is where can I buy one.

I finally got smart. I had only been googling “Coexist." I next googled “Coexist bumper sticker.” Voila... I can get one for the most affordable price of $1.50 at Amazon.com where until recently you could also by whale meat in a can (that is whole boggy bit). Who woulda thunk that something so Subaru could be gotten for such a proletariat price on such a universal website.

The blue bumper sticker which started all this has peacemonger.org and a phone number written in small print on the bottom left hand side of the bumper sticker. On the bottom right hand side, also in small print, is the sentence “Profits help fight hunger, fascism, and social injustice. They sell a wide variety of items dedicated to promoting peace and coexistence that is if you do not count the George W. Bush toilet paper. Other products include:
  • Celebrate Diversity refrigerator magnets
  • Coexist rainbow hoodies
  • Of their ten bestsellers, nine of the items have the Coexist theme
  • There is a button that says “Ask not what your planet can do for you, ask what you can do for your planet.” This button is on-sale for $1.50 which is half off of the original $3 price!
  • There are “My karma ran over my dogma” bumper stickers and buttons. I found these quite amusing.
  • There are bumper stickers that use the same symbolography as the Coexist bumper stickers to spell out Tolerance, Peace, and Believe.

The Peacemonger is Jerry Jaspar of Visalia, CA. He was dubbed a Peacemonger in 2002 when the US invaded Iraq leading to the downfall and eventual demise of Saddam Hussein. He believes that 9/11 was a CIA sponsored attack. I am not so sure I can buy into that but I respect his steadfast devotion to peace and tranquility for the all the peoples and religions of the world. I would love that too. I just assign a much lower probability to it ever happening than Mr. Jaspar does. Possibly this is because I believe “Their dogma ran over my karma.” He doesn’t sell bumper stickers that say this.

There used to be another bumper sticker that seemed to be on every other Subaru before the Coexist bumper stickers. That was the Envision World Peace bumper stickers. I do not see them anymore. The seem to have gone out of fashion when some clever humorist created a bumper sticker that said Envision Whirled Peas. I actually even thought about buying one of those bumper stickers.

Politically correct notes and caveats:
  • No Subarus were actually hurt in the writing of this blog.
  • The author of this blog is not affiliated with the Subaru Automobile Company, The Coexist Foundation, or Peacemonger.org nor has he accepted any compensation of any kind from any of these organizations.
  • The author of this blog actually believes that Subarus are good cars. He might consider buying one but is afraid his inner liberal would then be exposed to the world.

6 comments:

  1. OM ..... Namaste Mark!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Mark: Jerry the Peacemonger wants to share a few notes and caveats of his own:
    - The name is spelled "Jaspar." (common mistake)
    - 9/11 is obviously a hoax, if anyone bothers to dig beneath the 'official story,' much like JFK's murder. I'm not sure the C.I.A. was involved, but several top officials there made HUGE profits from the 'put' options that were made on American and United Airlines' stocks... (made days before the incident.) One need only to review the footage and read/view eyewitness accounts that say things like: "There was NO AIRPLANE WRECKAGE, no passenger bodies or luggage at the Pentagon, nor in Pennsylvania. Period. These things were explained away as having 'vaporized.' I mean come-on! Did anyone buy that explanation? Look at the footage, you can see massive explosives blasting out of the Twin Towers, and just ask anyone about 'Building 7.' Silverstein, the man who had the lease (and made BILLIONS on insurance after having the lease less than a year) was taped as having said the 'decision was made to PULL IT.' - meaning to demolish Building 7... It was made to sound as if intentionally placed demolition explosives are a normal part of a skyscraper's infrastructure, just in case the entire building needed to be 'PULLED?' I could go on. Do some investigation on your own, the truth is obvious to anyone with eyes that function. This event bought George Bush, then the Pentagon's mouthpiece, a ticket to begin his wars, which sold a LOT of product! (Pentagon war supplies... Halliburton et al's blank checks were just a bonus... and WE paid to produce all their product - well, that's enough for now.
    -Lastly, I may in fact create a sticker "Their dogma ran over my karma" if it's OK with you!

    Seriously, I sure appreciate your story and my friend in the sticker business who passed this on. If you should ever decide to buy from us, please give us a call and I'll approve you for free shipping for life! (This is usually only offered to dearest of friends and music stars...) Thanks and keep up the great work on your newsletter!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Jerry

      I was pleased to hear from you. Sorry about the delay in posting.

      I apologize for spelling your name wrong. I corrected that.

      Honestly, your rationale for 9/11 sounds more plausible than that I have read from others. I still cannot buy into it.

      As for my bumper sticker idea, go for it. I would be honored. Let me know and I will buy one and put it on my non-Subaru.

      I am honored for the free shipping for life... truly.

      All the best to you and your noble mission.
      Mark

      Delete
  3. This seems to be a great site which offers Bumper Stickers, Custom Stickers, Custom Vinyl Decals, Vinyl Stickers, Vinyl Decals, Custom Vinyl Decals And Custom Sticker Printing...i had been relying on Thebumpersticker.com earlier and they offered good stuff. You will be glad to work with them.

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  4. The Coexist bumper sticker seems to be too good. This is such a cool website for bumper stickers, custom or vinyl stickers as aleena said.

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  5. I am so grateful with your post since I am actually looking for this coexist bumper sticker for my husband. I have tried googling but yours is the cheapest one. Thanks,btw.

    ReplyDelete