While I’m personally not fond of Hummer SUVs, I don’t begrudge those who choose to drive them. It’s a free country, and freedom of individual choice should be respected.
Unfortunately, some members of the Watermelon Brigade in Washington D.C. went too far in expressing their views.
On a narrow, leafy street in Northwest Washington, where Prius hybrid cars and Volvos are the norm, one man bought a flashy gray Hummer that was too massive to fit in his garage.
So he parked the seven-foot-tall behemoth on the street in front of his house and smiled politely when his eco-friendly neighbors looked on in disapproval at his “dream car.”
It lasted five days on the street before two masked men took a bat to every window, a knife to each 38-inch tire and scratched into the body: “FOR THE ENVIRON.”
“The thought of somebody vandalizing it never crossed my mind,” said Gareth Groves, 32, who lives with his mother in a three-story home in the 4300 block of Brandywine Street NW in American University Park. “I’ve kind of been in shock.”
Now, as Groves ponders what to do with the remains of his $38,000 SUV, he has been the target of a number of people who have driven by the crime scene in his upscale neighborhood and glared at him in smug satisfaction. [...]
Groves, who grew up in the District and works in marketing for a local radio station, said he wanted the car in part because he is starting a company, Washington Sports Marketing, that is “image-based.”
He said he wants to get it towed and repaired but fears extremists might not be done making an example of him.
“I’m worried about what I do now,” he said. “If I get it fixed, do I put it back in the same spot three weeks from now?”
If I were him, I’d get it repaired (hopefully Groves has insurance), have an alarm installed, and invest in an environmentally-friendly aluminum/composite Louisville Slugger to leave a carbon imprint on the EnviroNazis the next time they try to perform another “prayer ritual” to the goddess Gaia on my ride.
Dunno. I understand both sides a bit…