Last March, just before the war in Iraq, I began to see dozens of cars carrying the same message displayed on a bumper sticker. The bumper sticker read "No War on Iraq" printed in black letters against a yellow background. I read in my newspaper that peace advocates were busy distributing these anti-war stickers at peace rallies. Here in Marin County that means that hundreds of cars were decorated with this same message. After the war in Iraq began, I saw something strange happen to the stickers. Beginning in April, I noticed that on many cars the words "on Iraq" were removed. Now the shortened bumper stickers simply read "No War". Instead of being a sticker of twelve inches in length the abbreviated anti-war messages were now only six inches long. I thought that this appending of the original message was pretty clever. Instead of stating an opinion against a particular war, the message was against all war in general. In May, I began to see a few of these bumper stickers appended even further. Instead of "No War" now the message was "No W". To grasp the meaning of this message, one must recognize that "W" (or "dubya" as it is sometimes pronounced) is a nickname of President George W. Bush. I thought that this was especially delicious: first against a war in Iraq, then against all war, then against the president to is pursuing war. And all with one bumper sticker!

Of course there are others ways to make your automobile communicate besides a bumper sticker. In California, car owners are permitted vanity license plates. My neighbor recently earned an advanced college degree and now her plate reads "MOMSPHD". Somebody must be proud of her. One of games that I like to play while driving is to recognize and interpret vanity plates. For example "gr8 1" means "great one". Once I saw the plate that read "MZT K191". I had an hint at what it meant. I checked out my music collection at home and I am pretty sure that this driver's favorite piece of music is "K191 Bassoon Concerto in B-flat major" by Mozart. That's one of my favorites too. If you don't know it, give it a listen. I don't have a vanity plate. I think if I ever do get one it will read "ROOM9". That represents a Korean word not used in polite company. At once it communicates both Koreaness through English and cultural slyness.

 My younger son just obtained a vanity license plate. There is story that goes with this plate. When my son was born 26 years ago, I wanted him to be a man of God and I wanted him to retain a piece of his Korean identity. For this reason we named him "Simon Peter Pyung Hwa Foreman". He began his life being called "Simon". But in kindergarten other kids made fun of him using that old English nursery rhyme of "Simple Simon". Then for several years, he preferred the name "Peter". When we moved to California, he went back to "Simon". My son is now a budding artist and is searching for an artistic identity. I suggested the combination name "Simon Peter", but now he prefers his Korean name "Pyung Hwa". As a matter of fact, he has just released a hip-hop CD with the title of "Pyung Hwa". And if you see a California car with plates reading "PYNGHWA", wave hello to my son Simon for me.