I finished up the Peace Tour in San Diego on Monday, a beautiful day for driving around and taking photos. After a little less than a month and 2700 miles of driving I’ve put up 171 peace signs between San Diego and Seattle and back. I don’t know what, if any effect this might have on people, but I’d like to think it helps calm them down a bit.
Mostly what I’m trying to do with these signs is let people know that, just like the flags that went up after September 11th, it’s not just our right to put signs up, it's our patriotic duty. If it’s not our right explicitly, then it's our job to test the system and make it our right, and the easiest way to do that is to just do it.
So far this year I’ve put up 711 signs, making for a grand total of 4,607 since this blog began in November of 2005. In this time I’ve been stopped by cops seven times with little or no consequence other than to take down the sign. The other 4,600 signs went off pretty much without a hitch.
My Modus Operandi is to travel with a lot of signs of various shapes and sizes, and post them along the freeways as I see fit. The best spots are those that can be easily seen from traffic but not so easily reached. I also try to minimize the time and effort it takes for me to reach the posting spots personally: few of these required more than a fifty foot walk from my truck, or more than ten seconds to post.
I was taught that when it comes to political expression my rights as a citizen are practically limitless Not just in the content of the speech, but the range of it as well. If I'm allowed to hang up one sign, I'm allowed to hang up a thousand of them.
Being able to use public property for the posting of political speech isn’t just our right, but one of those rights that's supposed to make this such a great country... one of those things we're supposedly so proud of. But how often do we ever actually use it? And how many people see us when we do?
Apart from the 171 I put up, the only handmade political signs I saw between San Diego and Seattle were two in Oregon that said "Nobama." God Bless whoever put them there.
How To Make A Large Sign In Five Minutes
Handy Posting Tips
2 comments:
Wonderful, Scarlet, as always. One question I have is about that short walk from the truck. Where do you park? Do you stop on the bridge you are posting on? If you didn't do that here it would be a300 foot walk and it takes time. I also run into some unforeseen complication at almost every posting. They take me longer than 10 seconds, that's for sure. I guess you can chalk it up to practice, of which you have a lot!
Thank god for you (and I'm not a religious person). Keep inspiring me and I'll keep doing what I can.
-Star
"For God So Loved the WHOLE World"
Peace be with you!
Samantha, another peacemonger
Keep up the good work!
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