The Lighthouse Keeper
Bumper stickers, along with other forms of decorative materials for automobiles, have been around for much longer than I have. I remember my father warning me against the use of stickers on a bumper - I probably asked why he didn't have an Adlai Stevenson sticker and my mother an Eisenhower sticker on their respective cars - because you might change your mind, and bumper stickers were nigh well impossible to remove, once in place. Thus, during my formative years, our cars were free of such litteror put another away, there was a total absence of bumper-borne exercises in the freedom of expression.

I still have mixed feelings about bumper stickers. From time to time, I have longed to have some statement scream out from my bumper, only to remember my father's admonition, and guiltily banish such thoughts. Over the years, I may have defied him once or twice, but by-and large, I have settled for no bumper statements or, as now, a few small window stickers which are relatively easy to remove.

Bumper stickers, whether on the bumper or elsewhere on the car's anatomy reflect all sorts of sentiments. The functional stickers, such as the town's beach stickers or the ones for travel to Great Point are among the most practical and innocuous. Yet, when they are arranged to reflect a series of years, they do make a statement. When 26 of them are lined up on the bumper of an old Wagoneer, it says a lot about both car and owner.

Then there are the benign stickers, reflecting resignation or, in the alternative, an incredible talent to control stress. "Fog Happens" is the perfect example of a sticker which evokes a multitude of memories, but doesn't keep you awake thinking about its deeper meaning. Those who sport that one have remarkable equanimity.

In Europe, cars have long borne a sticker identifying nationality. A couple are mind-twisters for Americans "D" for Germany, "E" for Spain -and others are as simple as "F" for France. I don't know if the tradition started in this country with the "ACK" stickers but if "ACK" is obscure (yes, I have been asked what it means), then "OBX", standing for the Outer Banks, represents the bumper equivalent of a fraternity's secret handshake.

Some old political stickers should have been removed, at whatever cost - even the cost of a new vehicle - if the owner had any sense of propriety. Nonetheless, ones like "Bennett for Selectman" and "Bush/Cheney-4 more years" do bring to mind a kinder, gentler time when a euphoria of sorts settled in.

Then there are the stickers with an edge. The ones that appeared here in response to beach closings to protect birds' nests - "Piping Plovers taste like Chicken" - certainly reflected a tendency towards civil disobedience. "Dog is Dead" is another that doesn't encourage you to try to engage that driver, who probably fell asleep the night before over a John Irving novel and approaches religion with nothing if not dyslexia.

Then there are the bumper stickers that really grab you. We all have seen one that speaks to us. For a few days it whirls around in our heads causing us to use it as a standard by which we measure other things.

I saw one Sunday night which struck me with its message. The words which reached out to me from the back of someone's SUV were "Preserve Us from Self-Appointed Idiots."

To paraphrase Shakespeare, perhaps some are born idiots, some achieve idiocy and some have idiocy thrust upon them. It doesn't matter how it is attained. All of us act like idiots at one time or another; we cannot seem to help ourselves.

Where is this going? I had been searching for several days for an appropriate way to describe last week's go-round over Brian Chadwick's seeking and receiving an at-large appointment to the NP&EDC. It certainly is not fair to call any of the players in that little drama of the absurd idiots, because they are not. They are smart people who all seem to have had a bad day.

It doesn't serve any useful purpose to go into the details at this point. Suffice it to say that none of the three participants in the melodrama, Whitey Willauer, Michael Kopko or Chadwick came out of the flurry with any glory.

Chadwick got what he wanted. He is back on the NP&EDC, although not as the County Commissioners' representative, a role assumed by Kopko as part of the throwing out of the old order. As Willauer asserted there may be open meeting law issues, but the important thing is that once again, the perception is reinforced that a few people are wearing too may hats in overseeing the governance of the town. As one voice out of 12 on the NP&EDC, Chadwick's, or any single member's voice is relatively modest.

On the other hand, he is already an elected official at a senior level, wearing the multiple hats that a selectman wears. In addition his uncle, Donald Visco, is the Chair of the Planning Board and sits in one the five seats the Planning Board has on the NP&EDC. So, the perception arising from his seeking the at-large seat is bad; that he is trying to do too much and, in addition in some circles, was joining forces to maintain the inaction that has marked the NP&EDC of late. He did nothing wrong as such, but in going after the appointment at all, he thought with his heart, not with his head.

Willauer and Kopko acted like people who, when faced with an unexpected checkpoint, try to bully their way past the obstacle. They were apparently to be thwarted in their attempt to rid the NP&EDC of Mr. Chadwick and they pulled out the stops to keep his appointment from happening. Their arguments were not on the merits but procedural, and also came from the different perspective that his appointment would give rise to perception that the board of selectmen was attempting to "control" the NP&EDC. Again, there was nothing wrong with that argument as such, but the premises were weak and easy to rebut.

The troubling aspect of the set-to was the attitude these two men seemed to bring to the discussion. Whether they are merely heady with their perceived successes at the selectmen level, or whether there is a basic attitude issue, remains to be seen. In the meantime the appearance of hubris in their written and spoken assault on the Chadwick appointment is both unattractive and disturbing.

No, these men are not idiots, but if there are many more instances from any of them of the sort of behavior that went on this last week over the Chadwick appointment, some of us will begin to wonder why they are working so hard to achieve idiocy and have appointed themselves to thrust it on us.

I'm not sure how this digressed from bumper stickers. It should be noted that the one about selfappointed idiots is benign in comparison to the Bush stickers I saw in the Stop & Shop parking lot this morning. Worse, on the way back to the office this afternoon, I saw one of those white stickers that usually has "ACK" or "OBX" on it. On close examination, the image on this one was a big picture of a tick, and the legend was "www.blacktick.com". Each of you can decide for yourself whether that

sticker speaks to you. I

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The "Lighthouse Keeper" reflects the views of the author and does not represent the editorial position of The Nantucket Independent. Please send any comments to drake@nantucketindependent.com.