Don't Tread on Me
A one-dollar shirt bought in the fresh market brings a decisive message a long way from home.
“You know, this used to be a hell of a good country. I can't understand what's gone wrong with it. ... They’re scared of what you represent to 'em. ... What you represent to them is freedom. ... It's real freedom. But talkin' about it and bein' it, that's two different things. ... They’re gonna talk to you and talk to you about individual freedom. But they see a free individual, it’s gonna scare 'em.” - Jack Nicolson
I bought a don't tread on me shirt at the fresh market in Pak Nam Pran, Thailand for less than a dollar. The shirt is second-hand and would have made its way into the old woman’s hands who sold it to me through various agencies that collect old clothes from the West and send them here to Southeast Asia by the bale. I’ve seen these huge bales of discarded shirts, jeans and sweatshirts piled up ten feet high at the border market in Aranyaprathet on the Cambodian border.
The shirt is an American large, which equals XXL here in Thailand so I knew it would fit. It’s a bit faded but the rising serpent and don't tread on me message is clear enough. Whenever I see a T-shirt with such a distinct message discarded to the international second-hand bin of third world markets I wonder about the original owner.
In Laos I once saw an old woman in a little bamboo village toting water on an ancient wooden yoke across her shoulders who was wearing a white T-shirt with the Porn Star emblazoned in pink cursive across the chest, pricked out in glitter. The journey that shirt had taken was mind boggling to me for hours.
Buying a “Don’t tread on me” T-shirt is not like buying a “Who-Farted Shirt?” . It’s not a one-liner that runs its course over a couple of outings. It’s a declaration that the wearer is willing to fight for their rights. A mindset that is unlikely to change so that the buyer of such a shirt would unlikely one day just toss it away.
The don’t tread on me symbol of the snake goes back to the original thirteen colonies and was used as the first naval flag of the United States. It was adapted over the centuries by all types of freedom seekers railing against changes to what they believed were inalienable rights. It was used throughout the revolutionary war and by numerous splinter groups during the civil war.
Since then, the flag has been used both by the left and the right in different fights. Most recently as part of the spurious patriotism of the MAGA movement.
Did the previous owner have a miraculous change of heart or die defending their right to fly an oversized confident flag off the back of a tricked-out lawn mower? Perhaps it was left behind at a rally or an insurrection. Forgotten on the towel rack of a motel 6 somewhere. The owner only realizing it disappeared when they returned home, cursing the bad luck and buying a new one the next day. Thus, keeping the don’t tread on me T-shirt industry ticking over.
Meanwhile back at the corporate budget motel where it was left behind among the detritus of a three-day light beer and fast-food binge, sans tip, the maid, most likely illegal overworked and underpaid, making no sense of the message or the ugly snake design. Following budget corporate hotel policy, she dumped it in the lost and found. The lost bin turns over each month to some charitable organization that ships these old clothes by the ton.
But why did I buy it? Was it just a sarcastic instinct to make fun of the sentiment where no one will understand anything about the message or simply the quality of the shirt? Nope, it’s the message - I don’t want to be tread on either.
In these strange times when the world is slipping into chaos, bigotry and tyranny. As 99% of the world’s population is balancing cannibalism against starvation while the billionaires are funding fascism and the planet is becoming increasingly unlivable, I still demand my inalienable rights.
I don't want to be told what I can or can’t eat or drink.
That I can’t read a certain book or view a website.
I won't abide the nonsense demanded by a radical minority who insist I use nonsense words for fear of being socially canceled.
I am never going to believe men can have babies any more than Jesus died for my sins.
I don't believe I should take the blame nor get the respect for anything my ancestors might have done or suffered.
I don’t believe guns are just tools any more than I believe children's opinions matter.
I don't want to pretend obesity is a natural healthy state, and I won’t concede that using mind-altering substances is anyone’s business but mine.
I’m not going to pretend that climate change isn’t happening nor that it's a natural process any more than I think it can be reversed by carbon trades.
I won’t believe we’re all the same anymore than that some of us are more important than the other.
I’m not going to let Ywah nor Buddha nor Allah nor the Dalai Lama nor Trump himself tell me what believe.
“We wanna be free to ride our machines without being hassled by The Man. And we wanna get loaded.” - Peter Fonda, Hells Angels on Wheels