First off, please take a moment to click here and scroll down through some of the 5,000 + signs y’all sent me during the Bush years.
One of the drawbacks to the ninja-like speed and efficiency of signposting with cardboard is that it rarely involves any of the conflict crucial to good storytelling. Every once in awhile though, I do make mistakes. A couple of weeks ago I was putting a “Lock him up” triptych on a roadway bridge over the I-5 in LA. The cardboard was slightly too big for the slot, and I ended up spending a minute or so wrestling the first two panels in. “Up.” being smaller, went in like butter. I walked back to my car and as I was driving past saw an SUV pulled over right by my sign and a little old white-haired lady was being let off. The glimpse I got of the driver was guy-in-his-fifties-with-cropped-white-hair-and-sunglasses suggesting “retired-deputy-sheriff-from-someplace-in-Utah.” On a whim I doubled back and sure enough, mom was bent over and appeared to be struggling with the cardboard while the SUV idled at the curb, still in traffic.
I felt bad at first. I hated the thought of that nice old lady having to get out in traffic, squat down and try to pull the signs out. Sonny-boy could’ve just driven off the bridge, parked just about anywhere, and done it himself. But No… it was “Mama why don’t you just hop on out and take down whatever it is that damn hippie was putting up.” I almost never get to see the people who take down my signs, so I studied them as hard as I could during the driveby, wondering if they could actually be the sort of caricatures I was seeing. One of the unfortunate side-effects of culture war politics is a tragically growing tendency to see each other as cartoons. Maybe I would’ve done the same in his shoes? Naaah, he should’ve just parked and done it himself. Ultimately I knew it was my own damn fault though - it was an awkward and sloppy posting. Took at least minute more than the fifteen seconds it should have, all because I didn’t go out and measure, or at least eyeball it first. “Time spent in reconnaissance is never wasted.” - The Art of War
I saw them drive onto the freeway as I went to take pictures of whatever remained. “Lock” and “him” were wedged in too tight I guess, but, as Jerry Garcia put it, Mama tried. As luck, (and what some might consider obsessive compulsive disorder,) would have it, I had several more “ups” in my car to use as replacements. Going back over the bridge though, there they were again: Mama out on the sidewalk while bullet-headed Saxon mother’s son sat behind the wheel, blocking traffic. This pissed me off a bit. First time, okay - spur of the moment and all that - but this time he should’ve just parked and finished the job off himself. I decided to hit a different spot and then come back. But when I pulled onto the freeway, this is what I saw:
Laughed out loud. They’d seen me struggling with the sign, figured I was up to no good and taken away the only panel that wasn’t wedged in too tight for mom. When they got on the freeway and saw what it was actually supposed to say, they went back and put it back up. Couldn’t really believe it myself, but there it was… I’ve had signs taken down, left behind and then put up again by someone else, but this was the first time I’d seen one restored by the same people who’d messed with it in the first place. I let an exit or two go by before deciding to go back and even it out, like so:
Yesterday I saw that “Lock” and “Up” were gone, but “him” still remained, so I worked with it...
Scroll down for a few of the signs I’ve been putting up on LA Freeways lately. I know there are lots of you who want to join me in this, so take a tip from Sun Tzu and do a bit of reconnaissance yourself. Familiarize yourself with some of your local freeway fencing and overpasses. Especially look for overpasses where the railings are on the inside, right next to the fencing. With those, posting is just a matter of walking up and dropping that puppy in — like putting toast in a toaster. The first two pics below are good examples:
This one made me feel a bit uneasy. Even with the hashtag, which I thought might make it look a bit more playful or “kicky,” the word “Treason” just has so much weight behind it — like calling for a death sentence, which is the usual penalty for the crime. It looked great from the road, mind you… but something about it just seemed so severe… Then I get back to my motel and find out the treasonous clown had been spoonfeeding lies to Clown Jr. about the meeting with the Russians… so fuck ‘em. Sign looked perfect.
Feeling patriotic? Go buy a flag and hang it over a freeway. Let it fly for a couple of days, symbolizing your love for your country and your ability to freely express it over the freeway. You can annotate it later. Corny as it sounds, the greatest weapon I have in my arsenal is faith in America. I do what I do with no fear of getting caught because, simply, I don't fear getting caught. I was taught that this was a country where using public property to express my political beliefs is not only my First Amendment Right, but in times like this it's my First Amendment Responsibility. I'd be glad, even honored, to defend that view in court. Join me.
Signs posted on freeways since 2001 — 7,283
Arrests — 0
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