Monday, March 17, 2008

Free Speech In San Diego


Every once in awhile someone gets it.

They get tired of meetups and message boards and waiting around for the next organized protest or vigil, gamely hoping the local media will give them 30 seconds on the evening news.

They get tired of seeing their country run down, treasury looted and soldiers stretched to their breaking points while the liars get off scot free and the contractors just get richer and richer.


They get tired of living in a land of free speech where the only thing anybody sees is advertising. They get tired of listening to blowhards like Limbaugh and O'Reilly spewing their crap to millions while they're told to make do by writing to their congressman.

They get tired of being shown cages and being told they're "free speech zones" and they get tired of holding signs and getting hassled by cops simply for acting like Americans.

They get tired of all this and finally say to themselves "Y'know, that crazy fucker with the pickup truck and the overhead projector is right: the trick is to make signs and put them up everywhere - to say what we want, when we want, and wherever the hell we want to say it."

So they buy an overhead projector, paint up a bunch of cardboard and make a bunch of signs. Then they spend an afternoon driving around and hanging them up where people will see them.

Thanks to the freeways, at the end of the day they can come home knowing they've reached about a hundred thousand people, and they're tired.

But it's a much different kind of tired.

8 comments:

Diana Wolf said...

This is wonderful.
I hope it travels all over the country.

I don't know anyone in NJ where I live to help organize something like this.

Where can they be put?
(I live in an apartment with my windows in the back, I wonder how quickly they would be taken down on freeways and at the boardwalk.

any suggestions?

Freewayblogger said...

Organizing tends to be a great way of intending to do something that never gets done. I have approximately 4,000 people now currently organizing to do this some day.

According to the Constitution, practically all public land is available as a forum for political speech in defense of your country. That's what makes us different from North Korea.

The basic rule of semiotics is this: when you put up a sign, people will read it until someone takes it down. The more clever you are about what you say and where you put it, the longer it'll stay up.

It takes about two days to become an expert at it, sometimes less.

beachblogger said...

yep.

M.Yu said...

All these are from SD? I am amazed!
I worked in Coronado and I could not even speak about the war or the military in any way that was not "patriotic"
I was born and raised there and hate their intolerance and jingoism.

Their 4th of July celebrations make me tremble in frustration. I learned to stay away.

Thanks for these. It is great to see how we all have a different angle on this.

I am very encouraged to see these!

Diana Wolf said...

Thanks.
I'm getting started.
I sent this to everyone I know and put on my journal.

Anonymous said...

Happy Anniversary douchebag! I had no idea what to get you! Sorry! :(

Sue Stroud said...

I am copying this brilliant campaign because here in British Columbia Canada we have an idiot Premier named Gordon Campbell who could care less about the massive number of people who are homeless or at risk of being so. My signs will say "HOUSING NOW" and "HOUSING FOR NEED NOT PALACES FOR GREED". Good luck to the freeway bloggers, you are wonderful.

Anonymous said...

Hi Scarlet :)