We’ve all seen those signs littering the public right-of-way with messages trumpeting the names of political candidates (and nothing on the issues). On weekends, this public space is invaded by numerous commercial signs promoting the latest sprawling housing developments. But what about the issues of concern to most people that are being underplayed by most election campaigns and the corporate-dominated media?

You can help clean up after this election and help see to it that those signs get “recycled” with meaningful messages about war and peace, jobs and justice. In the spirit of Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin, you can help revitalize our civic discourse by hauling up as many of those signs as possible before they become litter or landfill. You can stencil them and put them back out along the roadsides with your own messages, or give them to another group working for peace, liberty and justice for all. They are great for advertising public meetings or rallies, or just for getting people to think! It is also one of the few ways people with little money can exercise their First Amendment rights and reach a larger public without working through commercially controlled channels.

In many localities there are ordinances against erecting such signs along public right-of-ways, but such ordinances aren’t generally enforced. At least not against electoral candidates and commercial interests. Generally, campaigns welcome any assistance in removing signs after the election and they are thrown away. You may generate extra publicity if you send an announcement about your efforts to local news media, or if your publicity efforts are unfairly singled out for repression.

All you need is something to cut one of the signs into a stencil (like a box-cutter), a simple message (or a few) and some spray paint (house paint applied with a small roller also works okay). The wire signs are the easiest to put back up. Both paper and plastic signs can be turned inside-out and stenciled. The paper signs are easier to stencil, but need to be stapled back together along their edges once painted. If you have any difficulty with paint peeling from the signs (many paper ones have a plastic coating) then you can prime them first, in which case it’s better not to turn them inside out. Some people have stapled two or more signs together and stapled them high on telephone poles (like the circus does when they come into town). but you may want to check what local sign ordinances have to say about this. You can always just recycle the signs for people to display on their private property, but really political speech should enjoy more constitutional protection than the commercial uses that our public right-of-ways are routinely used for!

We’d love to receive reports from others, suggestions, documentation if your signs are singled out for removal, photos, etc….. We’d also be glad to share more about our experience with sign recycling. If you’ve collected a lot of extra signs, or are affiliated with a campaign and have a bunch extra let us know (when it comes to recycling, we don’t favor any candidate or party)!

Roger Ehrlich

PUBLIC ASSEMBLY

E-mail: public assembly@earthlink.net Web: www.home.earthlink.net/~publicassembly