OntheWilderSide

Columbus Day weekend adventure:
Lawn signs, fun, and sunsets

My husband Ian and I took a drive out east on the Saturday of Columbus Day weekend. We had the idea to capture signs of fall for the blog. Among our observations was a study on lawn signs and politics.

The full set of photos is at our Flickr album: here

Reflective comments on Columbus Day and its meaning at a 2009 onthewilderside post: here.

Some highlights of our adventure with notes below (the nature photos and lighthearted stuff is mostly at the bottom):

Above: Make your choice — peace or some political jibbitz.

It turns out that “Jibbitz” are a specific name for a design button you add on shoes. But, I liked the idea better that the Democrats and Republicans are for sale. If you give them your money, you get back some kind of political jibbitz. (If you give a lot of money, the jibbitz are business favors. If you give up your vote and a little money, the jibbitzes you get are just promises, photo ops, or the chance to feel important.)

We did an informal survey of the political bumper stickers and lawn signs encountered on our adventure. Overall, I think there were more Romney/Ryan signs from Calverton to Greenport than Obama signs. I do think that some industrious Romney campaigner went to homes and businesses all along the drive out east, and asked to place them. Many of the Romney signs we saw were along that corridor. The Obama signs we saw were a handful on lawns in the neighborhoods.

There were even more signs for Congress. Lots of Tim Bishop and lots of Randy Altschuler signs (and those did not usually have presidential signs on the same lawn.) And, some signs for local office, too. See a sampling of signs below.

Above: A “Freedom”, Romney/Ryan bumper sticker on a foreign car. Ian said, Romney wants the freedom to do business in the Cayman Islands.

Above: A car parked in Greenport, with lots of bumper stickers, and an Obama bumper sticker. (At least this person did not seem foolish enough to have Obama and a peace sign on the same car, like a lot of people do.)

Way back in the music section, Ian found the star of the current political season: Big Bird. We like Big Bird. And, we don’t mind the 15% funding that PBS gets from the federal government to encourage poor kids to love learning. See story at The Guardian: here.

 

Above: Young people play football at Greenport Village Park

Unphotographed parts of our adventure:

We were very annoyed by a traffic slow down on Sound Avenue. It was about 20 minutes of crawling, bumper to bumper traffic, where you were worried and stuck. Turned out it was the local firefighters slowing down traffic to ask for donations. Very uncool. Worried people. Wasted gas, which hurts the environment and people’s pocketbooks at this very bad time for gas prices.

And…on the way home, there was a police checkpoint. I do not believe in police checkpoints for anything except dire emergencies of searching for specific kidnappers or murderers. This is America. Big Brother should not stop everyone that passes to see if they have their papers and look okay to drive. This checkpoint was a scan for possible drunk drivers. There were about 6 police cars, from all different departments and levels of government. Very wasted energy. And, just a game to get money or credit for being tough on drunk drivers.

If police truly wanted to limit drunk driving, they should not set it up to catch people on the road who just went to a winery and are traveling along. Why not be proactive. Educate people about drinking and driving. And, have programs inside the wineries to plan for designated drivers, offer free rides, counsel on alcoholism, and/or hold the keys for people who may get drunk. Dangerous games of cat and mouse — which slow down traffic, threaten civil liberties, and scare innocent people — are not helpful, nor acceptable. For more ideas about how police can reform and become more effective, see our onthewilderside post: What If There Where No Police?

Above: At least someone on Long Island has a windmill!

Above: Corn husks at sunset: An adventure to Eastern Long Island

Above: Buddha was very popular in Greenport. There was a whole Buddha shop with statues and prayer flags. This “Mandala Design” art project was in the window of the local toy store.

Above: Kimberly Wilder enjoys the boats and water scene in Greenport

Below: At the end of a day trip, everyone can get a little tired. This poor scarecrow had been on display along the sidewalk in Greenport.

-The End

Filed under: Art, Election 2012, ian wilder, kimberly wilder, local, long island, Long Island news, Long Island Politics, New York State Politics, News, personal, politics, presidential race, progressive politics, rants, suffolk county, US Politics, war Tagged: | Eastern Long Island, greenport, lawn signs, long island, photos of lawn signs, photos of Long Island, Romney, Romney bumper stickers