Signs of The Times

Yard signs are funny. Having an energetic dog gives me an opportunity to see lots and lots of these unsubtle statements and pleas; declarations and symbols that stand for the people living in the house behind them. They’re just a treated sheet of cardboard and some metal, but these little posters can carry a lot of weight.

When I was young my friends and I had posters on our walls. Mine were of the Beatles, Oasis and Radiohead. Along with that collection of mop-tops, Darth Vader, Brett Favre, Dave Navarro and Shania Twain also occupied some space in the room. These posters let others know that I cared about guitars, Brit-rock, gunslingers, Canadian women and the Dark Side. While I was out walking yesterday (after seeing a handful of yard signs) a thought crossed my mind: why do these statements need to exist in that person’s yard? Like the kid who wants his friends to know he’s more Oasis than Blur, adults who live by me want some people to know something about them.

Another thought crossed my mind that had nothing to do with my bedroom. The reason people plant these signs is because so many others don’t believe their messages to be true. If we lived in a perfect (or more decent anyway) world, we’d all just agree that black lives matter, immigrants are people too, women have rights, science is a real thing and clean water is important. But that’s not the case; groups of people live to have power and they do whatever it takes to maintain it—including oppressing minorities, the poor, immigrants, woman, LGBTQ people, and scientific facts and evidence.