Not in my yard, you don’t

Some may not approve of my actions on a recent afternoon, but that’s too bad. I did it and I’m glad.

What I did was, I destroyed a campaign sign. It wasn’t a campaign sign for a candidate I don’t like, or whose political affiliation I don’t like. It was, plainly and simply, a campaign sign that someone stuck in my yard. Without asking me.

I didn’t even pay attention to which candidate was being touted by the sign. I don’t care who you are – you put junk in my yard, it gets treated like junk.

To me, there is a certain kind of arrogance, combined with ignorance, involved in simply sticking a campaign sign in a yard without bothering to consult the people who live there.

I will be kind and not mention the candidate (I did finally read the sign), because it could have been a simple mistake. My yard can pose some problems geographically, and the same thing happened several years ago, when a city council candidate’s sign appeared in almost the same, exact place.

But that hunk of yard is mine – mine and Alice’s. It was shown to be when a survey was made before we bought it. And I’ve never noticed the city or anyone else coming out to mow that particular stretch of lawn. It’s been left to us. Well, me.

The thing is, I do not allow campaign signs in my yard, and I have every right to prohibit such signs from appearing on my property. It goes back to the time when I was a reporter at this newspaper, and I felt I had to maintain an appearance of neutrality at election time.

Since my retirement, I have kept it up. Other folks can have all the signs they want. It’s their right, and I defend that right. I, on the other hand, don’t want their dad-blamed signs cluttering up my yard. Period.

And they should have asked me if they could put up their sign. The answer would have been no, of course, but it would have been a polite no, unless they got obnoxious about it.

Besides, a campaign sign in my yard may not help anyone, any way. I’ve told this story before, but some years ago, my two goddaughters, who were still in the public school system here, came and asked if they could put a sign in my yard urging that a millage request be passed.

How does one say no to one’s goddaughters? Especially when they’re so cute and beautiful and brilliant and perfect (not that I’m biased or anything).

Anyway, I said yes, put a sign in my yard, and there it stood, bravely asking folks to vote for the millage request that year.

The millage went down. Big time.

So, campaign workers, let’s not have any more campaign signs showing up in my yard, because if they do they’ll end up in the trash. Besides, with my track record, it probably wouldn’t help your cause, anyway.

•••••

While we’re on the subject, more or less, of political campaigns, may I say I am intrigued, possibly even puzzled, by the number of people who want to be mayor of this here town.

Looking down the list, I see some familiar names on the list of candidates – one of them almost a perennial candidate – along with some new ones.

Maybe there is a lure surrounding political office that affects some people and make them go weird. And it’s not just small towns in the Arkansas Delta where the siren song of politics is heard. How many people have run for president the last couple of times?

In some ways, but not all, it’s like “The Lord of the Rings.” If one can just get that ring, or that power, or that office, everything is going to be fine. Everything is going to be fixed, once one has the power. Of course, it doesn’t work out that way in real life (doesn’t work out that great in LOTR, either, come to think of it).

That’s why, as Mark Twain claimed he never actually said (but maybe he should have), “Politicians and diapers should be changed regularly, and for the same reason.”

•••••

Couldn’t help but notice an article saying that OPEC+, an alliance of oilproducing countries, had agreed to cut production in order to force gas prices back up again.

Reading the article was one thing. Seeing the increase at the pump was another. My favorite station had been below three bucks a gallon for some time. Suddenly it was up over three dollars, from $2.95 to $3.24.

Can’t think of a better way to make electric cars more popular. Personally, I don’t think the technology is quite to the point that electricity can completely replace the internal combustion engine. But I think eventually it will happen.

Just remember that one time, many folks would yell, “Get a horse!” when a car drove by.