Many of you may recall my great love for the Freewaybloggerand what he does. And some of you may be new to the phenomenon.
Me, I love the concept for these reasons:
- It's free, or nearly free -- with minimal materials costs
- It's unfiltered
- It can be as high or low impact as you're comfortable with
- It revives the "public square" and public political speech that has been killed in the era of solitary news consumption
But as wonderful and liberating an opportunity as freeway blogging can be, and as many of us as there are who celebrate it, the plain fact is that most of us are afraid of doing it.
So it gives me great pleasure to point all aspiring practitioners of public discourse to the First Annual Freewayblogger Public Punditry Contest.
Attention Artists, Activists, and Americans!
Celebrate Your Right to Free Speech in the First Annual Freewayblogger Public Punditry Contest!
Freewayblogger, Buzzflash, Michael Moore.com, After Downing Street and Skippy the Bush Kangaroo are looking for America's Hottest New Political Pundit! Send pictures or video of your Public Political Punditry to freewayblogger@yahoo.com Submissions may include Political Art, Speech, Theater or Text placed or performed legally in public under the protection of the first amendment. Suggested locations for public puditry include Parks, Libraries, and Town Squares... Doesn't have to be a freeway. All physical artwork and signage must be easily removable from site: No Vandalism.
Winners will be chosen for the creativity of both their message and its delivery and will
be posted on Freewayblogger, Buzzflash, AfterDowningStreet, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo and Michael Moore.com (and throughout the Blogosphere.) Winners will also have their city and state visited, noticeably, by The Freewayblogger over the summer. Photo entries should be submitted in JPEG format, and video submitted via YouTube or other video links. Deadline for submissions is June 1st.
Although the first amendment allows broad powers for citizens to use state and public property for the free expression of political speech, questions regarding local restrictions or the use of specific sites or manners of speech should be directed to local authorities or the nearest chapter of the ACLU.
(Neither Freewayblogger or any other blogs associated with this contest bear any responsibility for displays of political opinion which could be considered threatening, Hate Speech, or are otherwise illegal, damaging, injurious or stupid.)
Interested in actual freeway blogging? Great! See how easy, fast and cheap it actually is, in this video.
Don't think you're up to the task? How about a smaller sign on a simple piece of posterboard? Just put it up somewhere you can walk to casually. Sure, it'll be taken down, sometimes within minutes. But before that happens, someone has to "hear you speak."
Can't spare the money for a sign? How about a speech? Nothing says you can't get up on the steps of the local library, town hall, or even a park bench and give a little one minute speech about what you think the media really should be talking about, but isn't. Get a friend to capture it on video, and you're not only in the contest, but you're a public pundit!
Hey, it might sound stupid at first, but I know that all of us here value action and public participation, and this is a fun way to challenge the boundaries of your self-consciousness -- and maybe inspire someone else to do the same, while you're at it.