Here's a chance to be civic-minded, recycle neighborhood waste, and give amplify your political voice all at once.
Today, now that the election is over, do your neighbors a favor, and get out there to collect all the leftover campaign signs along the roadside. Everyone wants them gone, anyway. So why not take them home with you today?
Why take them home? Because they're a gift to you from the American political system, and you can use them to give back to the same.
Last year, we had a special election for our local state senate seat, which was marked by the usual blooming of campaign signs in the median strips and on the roadsides. Afterwards, I "harvested" dozens of those two-sided, posterboard signs that fit over the wire frames, and stored them in my garage.
Then last week, I put them back to work. I cut the sides of the signs, turned them inside out, and painted my own message on the clean, white insides. Then I stapled the sides back together, slipped the signs back onto their wire frames, and planted them right back where I found them, along the side of the road with the other campaign signs. Only instead of advertising a local Republican state senate candidate, they were at work in my local Congressional race:
The fact that Frank Wolf (R-VA-10) was reelected last night, of course, is not the actual point. The point is that having these signs, all conveniently pre-cut and fitted with their own mounting device, meant that I could have a political voice in my home district, and display it right out there with the "mainstream" voices, right where my neighbors are accustomed to finding their political "speech."
We should all avail ourselves of the same opportunity, this time on a much grander scale. The materials are out there just waiting for us to use them, whether in the next election, or before then, for some particular, special use.
Me, I intend to use them, when the appropriate moment arrives, to deliver the simple message of: Impeach.
Not everyone feels the same way, of course. And believe me, I'm more than happy to argue the point... some other time. For today, though, we'll just say that you've got a different message you'll want to deliver some day, and that you should take the opportunity today to help yourself do so tomorrow.
Why would you want to do this? Well, this is something I addressed in discussing my motivation for some of the "Impeach." guerrilla merketing diaries, but it's applicable to just about any issue.
Despite the fact that we're now all wired, with access to more news sources (both traditional and non-traditional) than ever before, our public discourse just doesn't really appear to be benefitting all that much from the increased informational flow. I think it's because we've all become solitary consumers of the news. In days gone by, people made a habit of discussing the day's news, and even tended to get it more communally, whether gathered around TVs or radios, or even just having the headlines barked out by the kid selling papers on the street corner. And of course, way back in the times of the founders, people used to read their papers in public settings -- taverns and the like.
But today, we tend to gather our news alone. Perhaps from the TV in the living room, or the newspaper over breakfast. Maybe even during the day on our computers at work, but almost always alone, at our desks. And even if you're reading the paper (or the blogs) at a coffee shop, how likely are you to turn to others in the place and strike up a conversation about what's in the news?
Absurd, right?
But it seems to me that the thing that the active citizens of yesteryear would find absurd is the notion that we could all have read in the paper about something as alarming and dangerous as the fact that our government is torturing people, suspending habeas corpus and posse comitatus, spying on its citizens wholesale and in clear violation of federal law, etc., and we'd not be discussing it publicly.
But our modern culture just isn't built for that, anymore. The consumption and analysis of news has become a private affair, whether out of fear of "offending" others with our political views, or whatever reason, we no longer take the news to the public square and air our concerns about it. Blogs have begun to restore some of that ability, but of course it's just "virtual." That, and the fact that we don't tend to mix with those holding much more diverse viewpoints.
The last remnant of the "public square" is advertising and the mass media. And it's a poor substitute, at that, being for the most part a one-way conversation. Still, it's one of the only methods available for reaching so many millions of people now living today's more secluded lifestyle.
So, we can bemoan that, or we can use it.
For better or for worse, Americans are used to seeing their most basic political "free speech" at election time, in the form of yard signs. I believe we can make use of that, but also change the nature of the messages conveyed there. What would be the effect of thousands, even millions of roadside signs reading, "Bring the Troops Home"? Or my personal favorite, "Impeach."
But it could be anything. What about, "Health Care Now"?
"Demand a Paper Trail"?
"Fair Wages for Honest Work"?
"Stop Blaming Gays"?
Anything you want. And every morning on their way to work, thousands of your neighbors will have to confront your message, like it or not.
When was the last time you had that power?
For free?
We've won back the Congress, and now everyone will be looking to us to implement a positive agenda. Now, you can even be a part of getting that job done. With a little extra effort today, and a few dollars' worth of markers, paint, and foam brushes, you can conduct a local advertising blitz on behalf of the key points of the Democrats' proposed 100 hour agenda, with daily messages supporting key legislation as it comes up for consideration. Or for that matter, remind your fellow citizens to hold their new Representatives to account, if things don't improve as expected.
Whatever you want. For next to nothing. For all to see.
I won't be passing that up. Anyone else in?
Update [2006-11-8 10:59:24 by Kagro X]:: Virginians! Harvest Allen signs today, and convert them into signs reading "WEBB WON. GET OVER IT." Then get them back out there ASAP.