Mrs. Sparrow doesn't put up bumper stickers just for decorations
Contrary to popular belief, Mrs. Laura Sparrow does not dedicate almost all of the space on the bulletin board behind her desk to bumper stickers just to reflect on her past. She certainly does not do so to add decor to her classroom. "Today's kids are complacent," Mrs. Sparrow says. "They come in (to Room 307) and they don't know what these bumper stickers mean."
The activist Americans who fought prejudice, censorship, pollution and nuclear weapons in the late 1960s are thirtysomething in 1990. Relatively few Harrison High School seniors have participated in community service activities such as S.A.D.D. (Students Against Driving Drunk) or the Interact Club (which promotes community service and world understanding; Harrison's chapter of this club was formed in the fall of 1989). Today, high school students are more likely to think about Air Jordans than air quality.
Mrs. Sparrow wants to teach the ways we can improve the world we live in, but she can't do that all by herself. To that end, G&G would like to spread the word beyond Room 307. Here are the "socially aware" bumper stickers on Mrs. Sparrow's bulletin board, listed in alphabetical order:
- Animals need love too!
- A woman's place is everyplace
- Anonymous was a woman
- Caution: I read banned books
- "CENSORSHIP" with a red circle and slash over it
- Don't just do something
- Extinct species are not born again
- If the people lead, eventually the leaders will follow
- Love your mother
- Minds are like parachutes... they only function when open
- No offshore oil drilling
- Nuclear weapons... may they rust in peace
- Once is not enough... recycle
- Peace is disarming
- Peace is possible
- Peace: Back by popular demand ("Peace" is indicated with the peace sign)
- People not profit$
- Put B-2 on the skids/Spend it on the kids
- Save the humans
- Say yes to life, no to drugs
- Stereotypes are a BORE
- Support your right to arm bears
- Teach Peace
- Thanks for not smoking
- Think Globally/Act Locally
- Wage Peace
- We didn't all come over on the same ship/But we're all in the same boat!
Most of the bumper stickers are self-explanatory, with messages of peace, equality and respect for animals and the environment. A few, however, need a little explanation:
- "Anonymous was a woman" is taken from the Virginia Woolf quote, "For most of history, Anonymous was a woman." Woolf was a feminist as well as a novelist and essayist.
- "Love Your Mother" refers to Mother Earth; in other words, don't litter or pollute.
- The B-2 in "Put B-2 on the Skids" is the Stealth bomber, an overdesigned and expensive bomber which is purportedly "invisible" to radar, but in reality is a marginal improvement over previous U.S. bombers. Erica Watnick submitted this bumper sticker to Mrs. Sparrow in April 1990.
- "Think Globally, Act Locally": Thinking globally refers to global ecological and environmental problems. Acting locally, then, means doing your part in helping the world solve--or at least reduce--those problems. Only recently has this begun to become more than just an obscure catchphrase among today's students. Earth Day 1990 inspired Harrison students to form a chapter of Students Against Violators of the Environment (S.A.V.E.); its first project was a paper recycling effort, working to save scrap paper from becoming wastepaper basketballs.
(Editor's note 5-29-2010: The "No Offshore Oil Drilling" sticker may have come from 1988. On July 6, 1988, Piper Alpha, an offshore rig positioned in the North Sea, 120 miles off the coast of Scotland, was destroyed by a series of explosions and fires, killing 167 men; it took three weeks to extinguish the fire and cap the well. On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon, another offshore rig located 40 miles off Louisiana's coast, was destroyed when an oil well blowout led to an explosion that killed 11 men, led to the loss of the rig and the worst oil spill in U.S. history.)
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