Walking the streets with a sign

Back from vacation, early voting is underway, it’s time for me to hit the streets and see what one man with one sign can do.

No more blogging about my candidate, I think I’ve already said "vote for Newman" in every possible way imaginable, now I just want to talk about walking the road with a sign, and the things you think about while you are out there.

I started yesterday afternoon, and chose the intersection of 16 and 17 in Green Cove Springs. My reasoning was that I could catch the people coming into Clay from Putnam and St. Johns, and I could catch the people going into the SOE office to vote.

While I was there I decided to vote, there was no one else there and I was in and out in less than 5 minutes. Early voting is quick and easy, but I question the cost effectiveness of keeping all these polling places open for so long. Maybe the other locations have more traffic.

When I finished voting I got my sign and headed out to the corner. Unfortunately, someone else was already there with a sign of their own. There was no was I was going to put my "elect Newman" sign next to a "we buy junk cars" sign, so I started walking up and down 17.

I’d rather walk than stand. Standing is boring, and when you walk you get a little exercise. I just got back from the Smokey Mountains, and it made me realize just out of shape I am. Went out with the family on a 2.5 mile hike in the park to Laurel Falls, that was no problem. Laurel Falls is pretty close to Gatlinburg, so it’s about a 1500 ft elevation, not too steep a path, so it was just a relaxing walk through the mountains. The next day we went to Clingman’s Dome. Clingman’s Dome is about 5000 feet higher, high enough that there is about a 15 degree difference in temperature. There is a .5 mile trail going from the parking lot to the observation tower, and it is a steep walk. That was the worst half mile of my life. I’m sure that altitude played a part, but it was only a half mile, and I was seriously wondering how far I was from having a heart attack.

So I figured a little walking in Green Cove would do me some good. Just a casual walk, show my sign to the passing cars, give the sign a little bounce and shake so people would look at it. At this point I am still in a mountain state of mind so I’m trying to find pleasure in the natural scenery. The thing about the mountains is that you are in a constant state of awe at your surrounding. The scenery is nice when you are driving, but I think it is better when you get out of the car. You find yourself studying the patterns in rocks and wondering why one part of the mountain has trees and another part only grass, basically noticing and appreciating things that you normally overlook. The stretch of 17 I was walking on is mostly forested, and while there might not be mountains in the background, if you look away from the road the woods have a beauty of their own.

I know that I am digressing very far from my own topic, but these are the things that you think about when you are on the side of the road holding a sign. I’ve seen a lot of natural beauty in my life, mostly while in the military. One of the things that come to mind is the helicopter ride from Puerto Rico to Vieques Island, the water is so clear you can see to the bottom of the sea. I’ve been to the Sierra Nevada mountains in Northern California in both summer and winter, and I’ve sailed in the fjords in Norway and seen the Northern Lights. All of these are things of breathtaking beauty which must be seen to be really understood. I’ve also seen incredible ugliness in nature, which I feel is epitomized by the Black Palm of Panama. Imagine a completely black tree with no leaves, covered with poisonous spikes; that is the Black Palm. While the adult tree is very ugly, the bad part is you rarely see a full grown tree. What you more commonly see are black vines, covered with poisonous spikes, and little "sea urchins," also covered with poisonous spikes, and they are everywhere in the jungle. The Black Palm vines are so prevalent that it is a common habit of soldiers who have been to Panama to not catch themselves when they fall down. The reason for this is there are so many vines in the jungle that when falling you are afraid to catch yourself because if you grab something it is probably going to be Black Palm, and then you have to go to the doctor and hope they can get all the spines out of your hand. When you fall, you fall all the way down and hope that you don’t land on something bad. I was only in the jungle for a couple of days, but it took me years before my reaction to falling was to put out my hand.

A more religious man than my self would be instinctively spiritually moved when confronted with the beauty and the terribleness of nature, but I am not that man, and I have to consciously remind myself that the things I see are only an earthly semblance of the Divine Hand which is behind them. While driving in the mountains it is common to say, "that is beautiful," it is better to say, "that is beautiful, blessed be the name of the Lord." This is the state of mind I enter when I am on vacation, when I forget about work, and politics, and all the things that distract me. I am trying to hold on to my vacation state of mind as long as I can.

I walked up and down 17, showing my sign to all the people that passed in their cars. I don’t know if it did any good. I’ve never paid much attention to people at the side of the road, but a man holding a sign is more noticeable than the thousands and thousands of posted signs that are spread across Clay county. I got a few crude remarks, but I also got a lot of honks. I consider honks to be good. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but when I’m out with a Newman sign and someone honks at me I interpret it as meaning that they also are for Newman. It does get discouraging driving around the county. You do see some Newman signs, but mostly you are assaulted by a sea of Taylor and Beseler signs. They both have some support, but they paid for those signs. The last time I looked at Taylor’s expenditures he had spent $8000 just for signs, I would imagine the Sheriff spent about the same, and you see it every time you go for a drive. Signs are an indication of votes, but they don’t exactly equate into votes. There are a whole lot of signs on public property, and let’s not forget how many Taylor signs there are on rental properties and vacant lots. I’m just going to keep operating under the assumption that every home without a Taylor or Beseler sign has a Newman voter inside of it. We’ll see what happens when the votes are counted.

Towards the end of my walk I came up on a big, green pickup truck with a big, Taylor sign on the back. What a contrast, him with his rolling billboard, me with my sign on a stick. I gave my sign a few extra bounces for his benefit.

While walking it occurred to me how incredible it is that I can go out and express a political opinion without fear. We are used to this in America, but that is not the norm across the world. There are plenty of countries where you can be arrested for standing at the side of the road with a sign, and plenty of countries where you would be worried that thugs from the other party would beat you up if you went out alone. We have a lot of freedoms in America, and while I know it hasn’t always been that way for everyone, we have it better than most other countries.

To illustrate this point I want bring up something I read back in 2001. I don’t remember the source of the story, but this was shortly after September 11, and there was a widespread sentiment throughout the World, and especially in Arab countries, that the US could not retaliate against Al Qaida because there was no proof they were responsible for the September 11 attack. Out of this period of denial arose the conspiracy theory that it was actually the Bush administration which hijacked those planes, and this theory was repeated as truth by every little communist group in America.

At the same time there was another theory bouncing around, mostly in the Arab World, that 911 was actually carried out by supporters of Al Gore as a retaliation for his loss in the 2004 elections. This theory is ridiculous, but it illustrates a point: there are a lot of places where people don’t consider it unusual for a political entity to commit terrorist acts as revenge

for an election loss. Think about that. Contrast it against me, walking with my sign, no fear of arrest, no fear of assault, no fear of terrorist attack. To top it off, I voted early, so I didn’t even have to fear the crowd or worry that voting would take up too much of my time.

Yeah, we all complain about the government, about the country and about the county, but it could be a lot worse. It could also be a lot better, but the only way a single person or group of people can have an effect on government is if they get involved. I do what I can, I just hope that my little walks with my little sign do make a difference for my candidate, and after the primary is over I think I’ll find something else worth supporting. My efforts might not be anything out of the ordinary, but I like the feeling that I am trying to make something happen.