More From Our Mailbag

Subj.: I Hope

I hope you thank our soldiers everyday. The ones who fought and died for your and my freedom to have free speech. Without them there wouldn't be a free Germany to begin with. Just how far would Japan have gone without them? When and where would Saddam have gone without them. We right wingers are so very glad that you nubies to the real world dont have a clue.

Bill


Reply: I Thank

Our soldiers so much I'm fighting to save their lives and limbs from being wasted any further by the murdering bastards you voted for. Where would Saddam be? Probably doing business with Dick Cheney like he was back in 1999... after he'd invaded Kuwait, after he'd gassed the Kurds, after he'd filled mass graves with the bodies of Shiites naive enough to believe Bush Sr. when he said we'd support them in an uprising.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/6/24/80648.shtml

There you go sport, from Newsmax, a good ol' right wing news source. That's your vice-president they're talking about, going around the UN embargo in order to suckle at the teat of Saddam himself. In 1999. And you voted for him, didn't you. And when George Bush forgot all about the man who murdered 3,000 innocent Americans, you probably didn't bat an eye. Hell, you probably still think Saddam was responsible for September 11th.

Happy Ramadan, Osama-lover. Real Americans have no use for you.

-Scarlet P.

Errand Day

I had some errands to run, so while I was out I stuck a bunch of signs up on the freeways. Since I always carry signs with me, signposting has become more the rule than the exception. In fact, I've gotten to the point where it feels wrong to go anywhere without putting signs up.






Cities Project Update: Over 200 cities have signed in now. In a couple of days I'll start releasing your e-mail addresses and then... well, I guess we'll see what happens. As with any movement, there are always more well-wishers than activists, but here all you need to summon up is some cardboard, paint and a little moxie. Once you've done five signs, the next fifty are easy.

If you'd like to join in, send me an e-mail with your city and state in the subject line.

freewayblogger@yahoo.com

ITMFA

Think Small

Sydney Operahouse: March 2003

Two protesters managed this feat on the eve of the war in 2003. While certainly a bold and visually effective effort, it ended up costing our plucky adventurers well over a hundred thousand dollars for the clean-up, though they did manage to raise it through a grassroots effort:

http://www.sydneyoperahousenowarcleanupfund.org/index.html

I'm featuring it here not as something to be emulated so much as avoided. I think it's become a mistaken assumption of the left that guerrilla signposting needs to be big and dramatic in order to have an effect. It doesn't: all it needs to be is read. The problem with large, spectacular signs is that they tend to come down quickly but also that they give the impression that guerrilla signage needs to be dramatic: something to be carried out by teams of commandos at four in the morning. This is simply wrong.

As you begin forming groups (and we're close to 200 cities now...) try to avoid the big, bold signs, at least at first, in favor of the quick and easy. Better to get ten small but readable signs on four or five different freeways than just one large one. At its heart, freewayblogging is a numbers game: an attempt to get your message in front of as many different eyeballs as cheaply and easily as possible. We're engaged in an information war, and if our government and media are lying, it's our duty as citizens to report the truth as we see it to as many of our fellow citizens as we can. The longer a sign stays up, the more people will read it.

Before investing a lot time and effort in a massive signposting, try this first:

http://freewayblogger.blogspot.com/2005/12/as-easy-as-it-gets.html

All it takes is cardboard, duct tape and about twenty minutes.

Back in the Bay Area

The sign above has been up for over two months now.
It's in Benecia, on the south side of I-80.

Do The Math.

The guy who put up this sign, "Liar Tap", just wrote in to tell me that this one:

was still up after six days. The sign cost me about fifty cents in materials, took about an hour to paint, if that, and by now has probably been read close to a million times, if not more.





If you can think of a more effective way to spread a message, let me know.

From Our Mailbag

New Jersey: New sign on I-295, Trenton, 10,000+ cars each day. Still up after 1 week. Thanks for the tip on the coat hangers...

Nashville: "This is one of two signs that remain on I-40 (White Bridge Rd.). They have been up for one day, now. Get used to it !! I hit the jackpot this time. Great visibilty; as the signs are luminated at nite., as well. More to follow, soon: I'm out to put the Music City on the blogging map..."

"Hey man, my name is Bryan, and I live in the city of fountains, good ol KansasCity Missouri. I stumbled onto your site through daily kos about threemonths ago, and brother, you've inspired me to no end! I've had it! I live in the metro area right smack in both sides of two blood red states. The monday after the superbowl, I went out with 15 signs, and hit 3 counties; 5 cities; 2 states. Signs went up on the 635, the 435, the I35, and the 71. 11 impeach signs, and 2 sets of the war is a lie...."



"Made 16 signs in ten minutes with a stencil and a can of spraypaint."
"Hey Freewayblogger, saw these outside of Providence, Rhode Island. Somebody's been busy..."