Clothing certainly raises eyebrows when bumper-sticker like political messages are displayed, doesn't it? Many folks struggle with the "to each their own" mentality when faced with someone else's self expression: what a challenge it is to respect each other's positions while maintaining our integrity as an individual. How do we disagree with someone and simultaneously admit that it is their constitutional right to disagree with us? A picket sign, a t-shirt, bra-burning, etc. have all been public displays of social ways we've expressed desire for and/or fear of change here in the United States.
History sure is ripe with people who are afraid of change: individuals often resist progressive actions and notions due to fear and uncertainty. As life advances, nature's competitive evolutionary balance seems to work on some sort of risk vs. reward system. If you don't take any risks, how do you ever gain any rewards? Within the United States in particular, it seems we are struggling with how we've combined the words "all" and "American".
Clearly, there are individuals and groups that do not want "all" to literally represent fairness and inclusion so in this context, I wonder if those who are out to preserve some sort of ideal heritage and legacy Eisenhower Era "All American" concept are fearing for their very lives when actual, real "diversity and inclusion" becomes apparent. On the global scale, what happens when someone outside the United States interprets the term "All American"? Would they be offended and feel confronted with exclusion and some sort of greater-than-thou way of life? Now that slavery has been abolished, now that women got the right to vote, after desegregation, after Equal Rights Amendments, after equal employment and housing efforts, when minorities become majorities, what does "All American" become next? Should Americans stand up for their rights and let everyone know exactly how they feel by displaying their beliefs and thoughts prominently on a t-shirt for all to see? Should they call their congress persons? Contact the authorities, alert the world that they truly believe their known socio-economic way of life was working just fine prior but is now changing for the worse and fading fast?
When someone outside the United States sees an "All American" person, or any person wearing a red, white and blue logo t-shirt that combines a Democratic president's name (who happens to be the current, majority-voted leader of a global superpower) with Communism, what are their thoughts on this type of American self expression? Can we get some objective, non-United States reactions here in this post so that people outside of North America provide perspective and viewpoints? If you choose to post here, I'm curious: do you think this is just another example of a society struggling with growing pains as it resists change and progress?