Massachusetts Bans Patriotic Signs on Highway Overpasses
Massachusetts residents who wish to keep the tributes to the troops that they have hung on bridge overpasses have until the end of the week to take them down, or they will be trashed. Last year Massachusetts tried this same bullshit but caved under the pressure from military families. Instead they passed an ordinance that required the tributes to be behind a fence, which every one of the tributes I see every day are. Now that is not good enough. It is evidently a public safety issue according to the Massachusetts Highway Department. Falling signs could cause an accident. Of course this hasn’t happened in the six years these tribute have hung over the highways, but that must be beside the point. This also didn’t seem to be an issue with the “IMPEACH” sign I drove by everyday, and it didn’t seem to be an issue with the “911 INSIDE JOB” sign I had to drive by every day either. That last one WAS a public safety issue as I almost drove off the highway in my blind anger. Luckily citizens cut those signs down on their own, they didn’t need the government to tell them to do it.
Massachusetts officials are trying to calm the storm by saying that this applies to all signs, not just patriotic signs. But I have a problem with this as I mentioned in regards to the signs I mentioned above. Massachusetts officials say they are sympathetic to the patriotic signs, but they can’t regulate which sign can stay and which can go.
State highway crews have recently been noticing a proliferation of not just flags and other military tributes, but also political messages, family birthday greetings, and even real estate advertisements, Paiewonsky said.
She sympathizes with the patriotic sentiment but says state government cannot get into the business of regulating which messages can stay.
The government can’t get into regulating the messages that can stay? Since when has the government ever claimed they can’t regulate something? Doesn’t the government regulate what can be written on a billboard? What a crock of shit this is.
I might actually be able to believe that Massachusetts wasn’t targeting the patriotic signs if it wasn’t for the fact that last September 11th, during a speech in remembrance of September 11th, Governor Deval Patrick had this to say:
Because among many other things, 9/11 was a failure of human understanding. It was mean and nasty and bitter attack on the United States. But it was also about the failure of human beings to understand each other, and to learn to love each other. And it seems to me that that lesson and that warning is something that we must carry with us everyday.
That’s right, September 11th happened because we failed to love the terrorists.
I ask you, are these patriotic signs being targeted? I think you know my answer.
Read the article this post was based on here.
~mpinkeyes
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