Well, I suppose it was bound to happen. As you probably know by now, former Vice President, Joe Biden, has announced his entry into the 2020 presidential sweepstakes. Anyone who does that sort of thing can expect their fair share of vetting, scrutiny, and criticism—to the nth degree, I might add.

Sometimes,
criticism is earned. Sometimes it’s unfair. Occasionally it’s ridiculous. I saw
some this morning that seemed (to me) beyond the ridiculous. Lunchbox Joe is
now being criticized for his campaign logo. I could understand it if the logo
was lewd, unpatriotic, or in some other way absurd. To my way of thinking,
however, it’s clever and tasteful.

I
suppose my taste in art is not the best or most sophisticated. Still, I can’t
see anything wrong with Uncle Joe’s logo. Yet, there are people coming out of
the woodwork to disparage it. The big complaint seems to be that it’s a rip-off
of Candidate Obama’s campaign logo. The secondary complaints are coming from
graphic artists who either don’t think it’s clever enough or that it’s a
“struggle to read.” One guy stated that it screams, “I’m Barak Obama’s VP, and
I approve this message.” I’m no artist, but my guess is that it’s tough being
original while working within such a small space. If it’s a copy, at least he’s
emulating a past winner.

Don’t we have enough to complain about without jumping on his innocuous ad campaign? For Heaven’s sake! Take a sip of your morning coffee and move on. I’m not sure for whom I might cast my primary vote, but I don’t think Mr. Biden’s (or anyone else’s) logo is going to sway me one way or another. Please get over yourself.

There’s
a short, three-word question in the book of Proverbs that asks, “Who has
complaints?” In the context of the passage, the question is couched in an
invective against drinking too much wine. It’s somewhat rhetorical and implies
that someone who has unfounded complaints has probably been hitting the bottle
a bit too frequently.

It
seems, however, that, in our day and age, people don’t have to be imbibing to
levy inane criticisms. It’s almost ingrained in our psyche. We see something
that doesn’t quite hit us where we live and the grievances quickly fly from our
mouths (or keyboards). I’m not sure why that is. Maybe we’re bored. If you
don’t like Joe Biden’s logo and have the time to openly complain about it, I’m
thinking you have too much time on your hands. This seems to be a wonderful example
of a first world problem.

To be really honest, I kind of like Joe’s logo. It’s not going to persuade me to vote for him, but at least it won’t irritate me every time I see it. Some logos actually are offensive, bewildering, or just downright stupid. I can assure you, however, I’m not going to waste my time complaining about them. I’ve got better things to do. ‘Nuff said…

[Dave Zuchelli is a graduate of
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and currently resides in Aldie, VA.]

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