8000 Signs Posted on Freeways. Zero Arrests.

Davis California, about 35 feet from Interstate 80. Attached in about 30 seconds with a spring clamp, hammer and nails.

Situations like the one we find ourselves in now are precisely why the Founding Fathers of this country gave us the First Amendment. Not as some nicety or window-dressing, but to be used by the citizenry to protect their democracy when all else appears to be failing. (Or whenever they damn well please really.) And they were right too. If just one half of one percent of the people who agree with that sign put one up like it tomorrow, the Republican party would probably be dissolved sometime early next week.


Our right to post political opinion on public property is probably the most powerful and under-utilized weapons we have, and restricting ourselves to marches and yard signs at a time like this practically constitutes criminal negligence. Nothing in the First Amendment says you can only have protest signs at protests.

Also, it's fun. Making signs is just art, posting them is like being a ninja for a minute or two, and figuring out where to post them is one of the greatest strategy games you'll ever play. One or two well-placed freeway signs will reach more people in an afternoon than you'll meet or talk to in your lifetime. 

I've put signs like the above on freeways in major cities all across the country, along with 7,975 others on a variety of other topics. You'll find pictures of all of them in the archives of this blog, along with 6,000 or so from others. None of us has ever been arrested for it, and if nothing else I hope the work archived here has proven that it's not a crime. It's our right. People died for it.

Frankly, given where we find ourselves now, the real crime is not putting them up.

Signs Posted: 8,000
Arrests:0

Sacramento

“I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.”  -Voltaire 

 Signs placed on US Highways 99 and 50 in Sacramento, California

"The Republicans have gone from Abraham Lincoln to Sarah Palin to Donald Trump. No wonder they don’t believe in evolution." —Andy Borowitz

 “Euclid alone has looked on beauty bare.” 

Edna St. Vincent Millay

"It's impossible for me to hear the words 'quadruple murder suicide' without thinking of my grandparents." - Anthony Jeselnik

Signs Posted - 7,999
Arrests - 0

Portland

"What we hoped is that we could stop the coming end of the world." - Ken Kesey

 Signs placed over or next to Interstate 5, 405 and 84 in Portland, Oregon.

Quotes by Oregonians.

  "When an old and distinguished person speaks to you, listen to him carefully and with respect — but do not believe him. Never put your trust into anything but your own intellect." - Linus Pauling

 "Orwell got it backward. Big Brother isn't watching. He's singing and dancing. He's pulling rabbits out of a hat. Big Brother’s busy holding your attention every moment you're awake. He's making sure you're always distracted." - Chuck Palahniuk

"The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets; the little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are — perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my Chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the Sun now stands, I will fight no more forever." - Chief Joseph 

 "Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt." - Herbert Hoover

Signs Posted - 7,991
Arrests - 0