In the midst of my recharging, rejuvenating respite in the greatest state in the country, imagine my shock, dismay and general appalled-ness to find, on Christmas morning, when we pulled up at the on-ramp to 290 on Lincoln Street in Worcester, that THIS exists:
The above, affixed to a Grand Cherokee purchased at Bancroft Motors, is in fact THIS:
Never before have I seen a license plate with so much to say about a woman's uterus.
Personally, I find anything more than a decal demonstrating an affiliation with a school, affinity for a sports team, or a parking sticker in poor taste on a vehicle. And while other special interest plates in Massachusetts and beyond (supporting youth hockey, the Blackstone Valley, endangered water fowl, etc), are relatively benign, and certainly have very little to do with the more politicized aspects of the female reproductive system, this one is just too much. Massachusetts, although you obviously have your fair share of pro-life residents, I am disappointed by your lack of good taste, and that this plate was allowed to exist in your RMV system.
In addition, Massachusetts, I was unable to believe that this was an initiative that originated with you, and, upon conducting a little research, I discovered that the proceeds for this special interest plate in fact benefit an organization based in Florida called simply Choose Life, Inc. Their mission statement reads:
"To work with interested citizens within Florida and other states to create and promote the sale of a specialty license plate with the slogan "Choose Life" whose proceeds would be used to facilitate and encourage adoption as a positive choice for women with unplanned pregnancies."
Nowhere, Massachusetts, could I find anything at all that enumerated on what these facilitating and encouraging organizations were. The entire website, and in turn, organization, appears to be dedicated solely to the proliferation of this license plate, which, according to an article in the Boston Globe from last June, is now available in about two dozen states, each which individually lobbied to have one: "...The plates are coming to Massachusetts because of an often lonely campaign begun in 2003 by Merry Nordeen, 47, a secretary at St. Joseph Parish in Wakefield.
'I prayed really hard for this — I prayed for seven years, and God didn’t disappoint me," Nordeen said in a phone interview."
The MA branch of this organization has a website very similar to the national entity's in that it seems essentially to deal only with the license plate itself, and not specifically what they're going to do with the money it raises. The national organization's statement reads: "The Choose Life License Plate is a wonderful way to raise public awareness and much needed funding to support the positive choices of Life, Adoption and Safe Havens for unwanted pregnancies and newborns." While this is obviously not a terrible initiative, and adoption is certainly a wonderful thing, having a slogan that assaults you with "DON'T ABORT FETUSES!" while you're on the way to work in the morning or to buy milk is a little abrasive, not to mention preachy.
I would imagine, as well, it is also the rare woman who gets counsel about her reproductive system from the bumper of someone else's car as she turns her head while driving through the parking lot at Applebees.
At this time, no other state has a Pro-Choice sponsored license plate. One was actually rejected in Tennessee. And while there are actually no great legislative or legal hoops to jump through to make a special interest plate available (just signatures and money), and various courts have ruled that special interest license plates are a mixture of government and private speech and therefore can't discriminate among the messages it selects, can you imagine the uproar that would ensue if NARAL suddenly came up with a plate essentially reading "Abort That Shit"?!? Heavyset women with helmet hair and puff-paint sweatshirts would be picketing in no time.
Legislative issues aside, Massachusetts, I am saddened by you with this state-sanctioned license plate. Not only do I smell a rat with this fishy, ambiguous organization (a pregnant rat... who's certainly not going to have an abortion), but you should know better. Leave this kind of trumpeting, proselytizing hoo-ha to the south. Or Kansas. Meanwhile, to all MA residents with one of these plates, I'd look for a healthy dose of ACLU card-carrying middle fingers being extended from Priuses and Volvos from Newton or Jamaica Plain... their drivers pregnant or otherwise.
However, Massachusetts, after the wonderful backdrop you just served as for my Christmas vacation, from Worcester to Boston to Cape Cod and beyond, for this lapse in good taste, you are swiftly forgiven.
Happy New Year (all the way from Los Angeles),
Dear Crabby
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