Just two blocks straight east of where I live, a homeowner (whom I don’t kn
ow personally) has on his lawn two signs – both promoting the re-election bid of Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., to Congress.
I know. I know. It’s that time of year. People put up signs of their favored candidates. Invariably, some get trashed and accusations are made of electioneering.
SOME PEOPLE GO too far in putting up all this cardboard and wire on their front lawns to tout their political preferences. But it is the “American Way” that people are allowed to express themselves if they so wish as to who they would like for us to vote for.
There’s just one thing I don’t understand about my particular neighbor.
He (and I) both live in the Illinois First Congressional District, which means our incumbent representative is Bobby L. Rush. Judy Biggert of Hinsdale represents an area of Illinois that is to the northwest of us.
She has nothing to do with our area, not now in Congress or even before when she was a state legislator representing a couple of towns in DuPage County.
AT WHAT POINT do lawn signs become absurd?
I probably should state that I am not the type of person who gets into the concept of lawn signs for the campaigns. I suppose it gives a candidate a big ego boost if they can drive up and down a block and see a whole row of signs promoting their campaigns (without any evidence of backing for their political opponents).
And I will admit that most people show some sense of decorum. One or two signs. Usually, the intent is to promote a single campaign or issue. (And this election cycle, it seems the presidential campaign is all the rage. “Obama” or “McCain/Palin” signs are most of what I see, along with an occasional anti-war sign that, upon closer inspection, contains the Obama campaign logo in the lower right-hand corner.
In fact, the Biggert sign stands out in my mind because it is one of the few non-presidential campaign signs I have seen this season (although just on Friday afternoon, I also got my first glimpse of a bright red with white lettering sign touting the campaign of Democrat Anita Alvarez to be Cook County’s state’s attorney.)
THE BULK OF the reason I don’t get into signs (although I enjoy seeing other types of political memorabilia, particularly those campaign advertising fliers that flood many peoples’ mailboxes these days) is that it is too easy for them to become tattered or damaged.
Inclement weather can turn someone’s political statement into warped or tattered cardboard.
Then, there are the half-wits who like to vandalize or steal signs, which was the fate of the one time I did put up a sign (“Simon for Senate” back in ’84).
I couldn’t help but notice a letter published this week in the Wednesday Journal newspaper of suburban Oak Park, where a local resident complained that someone stole her lawn sign touting the McCain campaign.
THIS PARTICULAR LETTER writer went into a diatribe about the intolerance of liberals toward his preferred candidate. And I suppose it could be some Democratic precinct captain for that particular block who viewed a sign touting the GOP presidential nominee as a smirch on his professional reputation.
But I have usually found that many of the signs that get taken away are done so by people with little political agenda, other than that they’re bored and feel like taking something. The signs that are vandalized by somebody with a “magic marker” and an obscene sense of creativity are the ones that are being hit by someone with a political agenda.
They probably get a cheap thrill at the thought of you having to remove the sign because the scrawls on it make it unviewable (or potentially obscene).
But there also is the possibility that someone took it upon themselves to call your sign placement nothing more than litter.
PERHAPS THEY EVEN thought it was somehow illegally placed.
That would be the case of one sign I saw being removed a couple of weeks ago. I actually witnessed a police car stop, a uniformed officer get out, and take the signs out of the ground before tossing them in his trunk.
These particular signs touted the campaign of Republican Tony Peraica for state’s attorney of Cook County. But they also were set up at a major intersection in south suburban Cook (175th Street and Cicero Avenue, to be exact) on a plot of land that is unincorporated and under county control.
Did someone go too far in putting up a partisan political message on county property for a specific county government candidate?
OR DO YOU think this is a local cop with too much time on his hands, overreacting to a piece of cardboard attached to wire?
I’d be inclined to think the latter, except that I know what the end result of too many campaign signs and leaflets is.
They turn to trash because they are left out way too long after Election Day. Some people are even more ridiculous when it comes to refusing to remove their campaign lawn signs than they are when it comes to refusing to take down their Christmas tree.
That actually is why there is one political person in this state I admit I can admire.
LARRY BOMKE IS a Republican from Springfield who serves in the Illinois Senate. One thing that makes him unique is that on the day after Election Day, he personally goes around to all the homes in the Illinois capital city that bothered to put up his signs, and removes them before they can become trash.
If only more political people took a similar attitude, there’d be less political trash.
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTES: Some people (http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/10/adult_four_youths_charged_in_c.html) just have (http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9197653&nav=menu44_2) too much free time on their hands.
No matter how little one thinks of the McCain campaign’s tactics, this kind of response is (http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/31111134.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUnciatkEP7DhUsX) just disgusting.
How long until a campaign yard sign vandal or thief claims his actions are merely an expression (http://www.pal-item.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081016/NEWS0302/810160337) of his own political beliefs?
ow personally) has on his lawn two signs – both promoting the re-election bid of Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., to Congress.I know. I know. It’s that time of year. People put up signs of their favored candidates. Invariably, some get trashed and accusations are made of electioneering.
SOME PEOPLE GO too far in putting up all this cardboard and wire on their front lawns to tout their political preferences. But it is the “American Way” that people are allowed to express themselves if they so wish as to who they would like for us to vote for.
There’s just one thing I don’t understand about my particular neighbor.
He (and I) both live in the Illinois First Congressional District, which means our incumbent representative is Bobby L. Rush. Judy Biggert of Hinsdale represents an area of Illinois that is to the northwest of us.
She has nothing to do with our area, not now in Congress or even before when she was a state legislator representing a couple of towns in DuPage County.
AT WHAT POINT do lawn signs become absurd?
I probably should state that I am not the type of person who gets into the concept of lawn signs for the campaigns. I suppose it gives a candidate a big ego boost if they can drive up and down a block and see a whole row of signs promoting their campaigns (without any evidence of backing for their political opponents).
And I will admit that most people show some sense of decorum. One or two signs. Usually, the intent is to promote a single campaign or issue. (And this election cycle, it seems the presidential campaign is all the rage. “Obama” or “McCain/Palin” signs are most of what I see, along with an occasional anti-war sign that, upon closer inspection, contains the Obama campaign logo in the lower right-hand corner.
In fact, the Biggert sign stands out in my mind because it is one of the few non-presidential campaign signs I have seen this season (although just on Friday afternoon, I also got my first glimpse of a bright red with white lettering sign touting the campaign of Democrat Anita Alvarez to be Cook County’s state’s attorney.)
THE BULK OF the reason I don’t get into signs (although I enjoy seeing other types of political memorabilia, particularly those campaign advertising fliers that flood many peoples’ mailboxes these days) is that it is too easy for them to become tattered or damaged.
Inclement weather can turn someone’s political statement into warped or tattered cardboard.
Then, there are the half-wits who like to vandalize or steal signs, which was the fate of the one time I did put up a sign (“Simon for Senate” back in ’84).
I couldn’t help but notice a letter published this week in the Wednesday Journal newspaper of suburban Oak Park, where a local resident complained that someone stole her lawn sign touting the McCain campaign.
THIS PARTICULAR LETTER writer went into a diatribe about the intolerance of liberals toward his preferred candidate. And I suppose it could be some Democratic precinct captain for that particular block who viewed a sign touting the GOP presidential nominee as a smirch on his professional reputation.
But I have usually found that many of the signs that get taken away are done so by people with little political agenda, other than that they’re bored and feel like taking something. The signs that are vandalized by somebody with a “magic marker” and an obscene sense of creativity are the ones that are being hit by someone with a political agenda.
They probably get a cheap thrill at the thought of you having to remove the sign because the scrawls on it make it unviewable (or potentially obscene).
But there also is the possibility that someone took it upon themselves to call your sign placement nothing more than litter.
PERHAPS THEY EVEN thought it was somehow illegally placed.
That would be the case of one sign I saw being removed a couple of weeks ago. I actually witnessed a police car stop, a uniformed officer get out, and take the signs out of the ground before tossing them in his trunk.
These particular signs touted the campaign of Republican Tony Peraica for state’s attorney of Cook County. But they also were set up at a major intersection in south suburban Cook (175th Street and Cicero Avenue, to be exact) on a plot of land that is unincorporated and under county control.
Did someone go too far in putting up a partisan political message on county property for a specific county government candidate?
OR DO YOU think this is a local cop with too much time on his hands, overreacting to a piece of cardboard attached to wire?
I’d be inclined to think the latter, except that I know what the end result of too many campaign signs and leaflets is.
They turn to trash because they are left out way too long after Election Day. Some people are even more ridiculous when it comes to refusing to remove their campaign lawn signs than they are when it comes to refusing to take down their Christmas tree.
That actually is why there is one political person in this state I admit I can admire.
LARRY BOMKE IS a Republican from Springfield who serves in the Illinois Senate. One thing that makes him unique is that on the day after Election Day, he personally goes around to all the homes in the Illinois capital city that bothered to put up his signs, and removes them before they can become trash.
If only more political people took a similar attitude, there’d be less political trash.
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTES: Some people (http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/10/adult_four_youths_charged_in_c.html) just have (http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9197653&nav=menu44_2) too much free time on their hands.
No matter how little one thinks of the McCain campaign’s tactics, this kind of response is (http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/31111134.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUnciatkEP7DhUsX) just disgusting.
How long until a campaign yard sign vandal or thief claims his actions are merely an expression (http://www.pal-item.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081016/NEWS0302/810160337) of his own political beliefs?
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