The scene: I’m visiting a friend of mine in Maryland, and we’re on our way to the local Trader Joe’s since I don’t have any down by me and it’s my primary source of olive oil and other goodies. We’ve got the radio on the eighties station, we’re yakking about football, things are fine until all of a sudden I see a white tractor trailer with blue and red accents. I then go into what some might politely term a flail session, punctuated with pained yells and much use of my right middle finger.
“AUUGGHH!! FUCKING COVENANT TRANSPORT!! FUCK YOU!!”
My friend laughs, but joins me in the one finger salute.
Covenant Transport describes itself as “a faith-based, publicly-traded truckload carrier” based out of Chattanooga, Tennessee. What is notable about Covenant-and what causes my flailing-is that on the back of every one of their trailers there is a placard that reads “It Is Not A Choice/It Is A Child.”
If you’re a private individual and you want to cover the minivan with “pro-life” bumper stickers, be my guest. As a business? I don’t want to know your personal politics or religion. I have the same problem with businesses who stick a Jesus fish or cross in with their logo, a common sight here in Virginia. What, just because you’re Christian that automatically negates any possibility of you doing shoddy work or ripping people off? Frankly, I’d rather see a Better Business Bureau logo-that sets my mind more at ease than a cross.
I have to wonder how their employees feel about the placard. Covenant’s not a small company so I doubt that every single one of their employees toes the party line, so to speak. Obviously, I’d find it very difficult to work for a company whose openly stated beliefs were opposite to mine, but that’s just me. As a customer, my attitude would be, “a child, a choice, whatever-are you going to get my stuff from point A to point B without breaking or losing it?” In other words, there’s no place for it.
But it does give me exercise when driving.