Driving in to work today, I saw a sign attached to the fence on an overpass. It was crude and hand-lettered - it looked like it was painted on a white bedsheet. It said:
RALLY TODAY
DALEY PLAZA
5 PM BUSH OUT
My first thought was, man, that's terse. You've got your What, Where, When, and Why all in 7 words and a number. Aspiring to be a man of as few words as possible myself, I had to admire it. But the Why sort of bothered me. "BUSH OUT". Out of what? I realize that to the kind of person who goes to anti-Bush rallies, it doesn't really matter. Getting together with the like-minded, chanting slogans, and maybe waving around a large mocking puppet or two is its own reward. But still, I wondered. "BUSH OUT" of what?
Iraq? He's not there, the military is. Office? I thought that was more likely, but he can't run for re-election. The "BUSH OUT" countdown is at a little under three years and ticking, like it or not. But you wouldn't have a rally for that. Are they calling for his impeachment? Possibly, and with Chicago the only reason Illinois is a blue state, it seems as likely a place as any to have such a rally. Are they fomenting revolution so they can do away with the Constitution, storm the White House with torches and pitchforks, and burn him at the stake? Seems unlikely, but then again, this is Chicago...
Then I thought, maybe I'm giving the sign maker too much credit. Maybe "BUSH OUT" is just an inchoate statement of dissatisfaction, a plea for him to just go away. "BUSH OUT OF SIGHT, BUSH OUT OF MIND, ME HAPPY" might have been what they were going for when they ran out of room on the sheet and thought, hell with it. I ain't making another trip to buy more sheets.
But then I realized, maybe it isn't an anti-Bush rally at all. It could be a pro-Bush rally. Maybe the sign was made by the president himself, and he ended it "BUSH OUT" because he thought it sounded cool, like something you'd say into a radio in a movie.
In the absence of more information, I think that last one is what I choose to believe. The President of the United States, painting a sign on a sheet, skulking around the west side of Chicago in the dead of night, lashing the sign to a highway overpass. That world is far more entertaining than the one in which we really live.
Posted by Mr Green at January 31, 2006 08:22 AM | TrackBack