Minnesota Democrats Exposed ©: LAWN SIGN VANDALS STRIKE AGAIN!

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

LAWN SIGN VANDALS STRIKE AGAIN!

1 Comments:

Jeff said...: Paying a minimal price for the freedom to express one's views. Deal with it. We do.

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/columnists/9895219.htm?1c

All's fair in election politics and lawn-sign lawlessness

LAURA BILLINGS

To the owners of political lawn signs wringing their hands about recent reports of vandalism, let me offer some good advice I once got from a gym teacher:

"Don't be such a target."

This is what he told every whiner who got whapped by wooden jump-rope handles, every complainer who got clunked in the head during a rough game of bombardment.

"If you're gonna play, you might get hurt, OK? Either sit on the sidelines or get over it already."

This advice may have equal application on the political playground as well. As the days count down to Nov. 2, both sides of the battle turn into spineless weenies and duty-kissers, cringing and complaining that the other guys are taking cheap shots and not playing by the rules.

All these charges are true, of course.

But that's also part of the game.

Now, I don't mean to ignore the reality that we have reached a point of fractiousness and closefistedness in our public debates that is, frankly, depressing. "The politics of personal destruction" that Bill Clinton complained of have devolved further into the politics of property destruction. And nearly every newspaper in the country this month has showcased some lawlessness around lawn signs.

A Republican in Baltimore woke last month to find two lawn signs smoldering on his front lawn. Another on St. Paul's Summit Avenue says his Bush-Cheney signs have been vandalized so often he's posted a handmade sign decrying "Liberal Violence."

A retiree in Coon Rapids who tallies the number of troops killed in Iraq on a handmade sign has had it stolen so often he had to reinforce it with concrete posts. That was vandalized, too. Kerry/Edwards supporters in Crocus Hill awake to find their lawn signs — not to mention the really good garden hose — have disappeared in the night.

Victims of such drive-by assaults are shocked — shocked! — that anyone would do such a thing. This is often the response the first time a person puts his opinion out for public consumption — whether that world view is delivered via a bumper sticker, a letter to the editor, speaking up at a public forum, posting a web log, or even writing a newspaper column. You feel so strongly about your position and its essential logic that you never figured on people who would not be swayed by it.

And you certainly didn't figure on the small percentage of these folks who, in disagreeing with you, will call you names, impugn your patriotism, key your car, and run off with the garden clippers. Finding out that such mental instability exists in this world is unsettling. It rattles your sense of order in the universe. It even makes you question that old saw about how there's more in this country that unites us than divides us.

Yet as painful as all of this may be, the fact is, you brought this on yourself. Having a political sign in your front yard is like choosing to wear a "kick me" sign through the hallway of a junior high school. It is not advertising; it is an invitation to an argument, and you'd better expect to endure a few swipes.

The First Amendment may guarantee your freedom to speak, but it does not guarantee a receptive audience. In fact, some of them may even want to exercise their own freedom from your freedom of expression.

And as long as no one loses an eye, that's what makes this a great country.

Now, a timeout for you pukes who think peeing on a lawn sign qualifies you as "politically active." If you're truly so passionately partisan that you want to destroy your neighbor's Ralph Nader signs, your energies might be more productively channeled by going to work for your chosen party in their final get-out-the-vote drives.

If you are merely a moronic vandal, redeem yourself before you get nailed with a $700 misdemeanor — and make sure you are registered to vote.

If you are too young for that, get back in bed before your parents catch you out and up to no good.

Remember, if you work hard and apply yourself, someday you may grow up to have a lawn — and a lawn sign — to call your own.; 10:27 AM