Stolen Kerry Yard Signs / Direct Presidential Elections

My second Kerry yard sign was stolen the evening of October 11th (last night). This morning (October 12th) I put out another one.

This should probably not come as a surprise, living where we do. I think I have the only Kerry political yard sign in my entire neighborhood. Perhaps that is because the thieves who have stolen my yard signs are active throughout our area.

How sad that some individuals among us act in this way, to chill the political speech of others with whom they disagree. Do these people have viable reasons for opposing Kerry and (I am assuming) supporting our incumbent President? There is no way to tell.

I would think the technical right of someone else’s free speech ends at my property line– they could say what they want walking or standing on the sidewalk outside my house, but I feel sure they do not have any legal right to remove a political sign that I have placed in my yard.

If this third sign is stolen (which judging on past events seems extremely likely) then I may put up some smaller signs around it saying something like, “ATTENTION THIEVES FOR BUSH: YOU WILL BE SHOT ON SIGHT IF YOU STEAL THIS SIGN.” That probably would incite more of the same behavior and be counterproductive. I wonder what the legal ramifications would be of shooting someone with a paintball gun multiple times who actually tries to remove the sign from my yard? I seem to recall that people in some areas where “no trespassing” signs are posted have a legal right to shoot trespassers? Maybe that is just a Texas rural custom rather than a formal legal right. And of course gun restrictions (even possibly for paintball guns) are likely different inside the city limits than outside.

So what is a Kerry advocate dealing with these hidden and persistent Bush sign thieves to do? Probably just get more signs and keep putting them out.

Do the people stealing these signs really think the signs in my yard represent any type of threat to Bush’s claim on Texas’ electoral votes? I would be really surprised and flattered if they do! Maybe the people stealing these signs don’t realize that here in the United States, we still elect our President with an institution known as The Electoral College, instead of having a direct popular vote for President like every other truly democratic republic in the world……

This website from the University of Missouri’s Law school provides some good background on the Electoral College vs direct popular vote debate. Whatever the outcome of November’s elections, hopefully a movement to amend our Constitution and directly elect the President by popular vote will gain enough momentum to become a reality. Of course we should not amend the Constitution on a whim, or take this issue lightly. Clearly, however, the “founding fathers” who authored our wonderful Constitution had some screwed up ideas. Not allowing women to vote, counting slaves as only a fraction of a person, etc.– these were all bad ideas. Women should vote, slavery should be outlawed, each person regardless of their characteristics should be counted as a whole person– for census and electoral purposes, as well as other needs.

It’s time to stop stealing yard signs, people.

And it’s time to amend the Constitution, so my vote for the Presidential candidate of my choice (even here in conservative West Texas) will carry some actual weight in the National election. (And yours will too.)

More on my views about Kerry and Bush is on www.wesfryer.com/president2004/.