The Asheville Citizen-Times reports on the dismissal of the legal case against a man who hung an "Impeach Bush/Cheney" sign from an overpass on Interstate 240. The man fancies himself a "highway blogger". His lawyer argued that the case was "selectively prosecuted" on the pretense of enforcing public safety ordinances.
The lawyer argued that it was essentially a case about free speech. The judge agreed. I agree too - even if I disagree with the "highway blogger's" sign (as I support the President, and think our alternatives to Bush right now are pretty scary/nauseating).
Ah, the memories. Four years ago . . . shortly before I appeared before the Asheboro City Council and told them my long, sad story of young-professional woe in Asheboro, I protested (twice) on Fayetteville Street in front of Randolph Hospital. I applied for a "parade" permit and made a huge banner that said, www.asheboropediatrics.com. When I anchored the sign in the grass adjacent to the sidewalk (without in any way blocking it), the police showed up and told me that I had to take it down (I could not even anchor it in rock-laden buckets) - citing public safety ordinances.
I could see the hospital's PR whiz (April Thronton) standing/smirking from hospital grounds when the cops showed up. I wound up walking with just a banner strapped to my chest & back . . . that few people could read from their cars.
I was ultimately told that to put up a sign (even temporarily - for a protest), I would need a zoning permit!?!?!.
It all a load of horse-you-know-what, an affront to free speech, and clearly designed to protect Bob Morrison and the big guns at Randolph Hospital from the consequences of Bob's illegal actions. Of course, well-insulated Bob went on to front other things for the City Council. He was well-rewarded for the fronting.
The Courier Tribune, of course, did not report my protests . . . or on my subsequent appearance before the Asheboro City Council. A doctor having the guts (or "crazy" enough) to strap a sign on her body and parade in front of the hospital that burned her was not newsworthy.
The "highway-blogger's" attorney noted that high school students aren’t arrested when they stand next to highways holding signs advertising car washes.
I made the same argument to the Asheboro City Council. They so did not care.
In some sense, I'd love to be annexed - dragged kicking and screaming to full "citizenship" in Asheboro. I'd run for Mayor and, during the campaign, gift all of these people with a copy of the Constitution.
I remember that my Dad was so proud of me. He came out to walk with me awhile - and later watch from across the street - as the cars zoomed by and honked their horns. That image of Pops standing across the street is one of my more vivid memories of him . . . standing there in his railroad cap & jeans/Big Ben jacket . . . watching out for his little girl (because, at the time, we were more afraid of the police arresting me on some trumped-up charge than any of the ordinary citizens driving by me . . . or the curious hospital employees watching from the bank of the hill).
Tell me again, JR/Cone/Renfro that my case is not "relevant" to anything. For all of your two-faced rhetoric about "citizen journalism", the truth is that you're just too gutless to upset your apple-carts.
It makes me sick.
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