Three weeks ago, Bill Goode erected a Barack Obama campaign sign in front of his law firm's office on Johnston Street. The two-sided, 4x8 sign faces both lanes of traffic on Lafayette's busy four-lane street. About a week after it was erected, Goode says someone tried to smash the sign with a rock. A week ago, a vandal spray painted the letter "N" over the letter "O" in "Obama."
"I think this is just the intolerance of the right wing," Goode says. "You see it all over the place now. I'm not even a liberal. I'm a registered independent. I belong to the NRA. But when people criticize McCain or Palin then it's called political diatribe, and you're called un-American. But when they say bad things about Obama and Biden, it's just fine. It's a two-sided approach to the First Amendment now."
Last night, someone set Goode's Obama campaign sign on fire. One side is charred, and four of his five American flags were burned and destroyed. The Lafayette Fire Department managed to put the fire out before the entire sign burned. Goode has no intentions of repairing the sign and plans on adding 10 more flags to the display.
"I want people to know that there are people in our community who have no respect for the rights of others and what they think, and that's kind of scary," Goode says. "If they want to deface my property and my right to have my opinion, I want other people to know that those kind of folks are out there. They're trying to intimidate me and other people, and it's not going to intimidate me."
"The bottom line is that this is America," he adds "and we all have a right to our political beliefs and to voice our opinions. That's what America's all about. But there are just some people out there who don't think that way anymore."
... written by Avery , October 30, 2008 - 01:50 pm
What is wrong with people? When did this kind of behavior become okay? Personally I blame Newt Gingrich and the media for pitting Americans against each other. And this "culture war's" soldiers are the same idiots that take a LSU vs. Alabama game way too seriously.
I wonder how many David Duke signs were vandalized? I can't remember any.
... written by Amy , October 30, 2008 - 06:16 pm
I had an Obama/Biden bumper sticker on my car. One evening in downtown Lafayette, someone ripped it off, crumpled and magled it up, and threw it on top of my car. This behavior is unacceptable. Free speech is one thing; vandalism is another.
... written by Jason Faulk , October 31, 2008 - 03:37 am
Posted by Avery: "I wonder how many David Duke signs were vandalized? I can't remember any."
That's b/c those clowns illegally nailed the durn things 20 feet high on public telephone/power poles, which were then *illegal* for public agencies to take them down. And the signs ended up stating "Duke Country" in a paternalistic manner of the place belonging to him, and his supporters and nobody else. I despise the use of the word country in that context, or in any other which expresses ownership or possession of the common public trust/realm that we all share and is freely open to all.
Furthermore, as for Mr. Goode's signs, it is sad and unsurprising that the number of clowns who would deface a sign have only violence to express their dislike, and it bespeaks of their greater internal revulsion for Mr. Obama, which I shall say is born for rashly emotional reasons, rather than cooly thought out reasons. Keep in mind that reason is still based within the mind according to instant emotional association. So even a reasoned position is based upon emotion. This is beginning to be understood by cognitive scientists.
Finally, it's the same mentality of exploit, and separateness, I would say in the minds of the vandals, that would lead them to be the kind of people who if they cared, would have defaced the many "Save the Horse Farm" signs Mr. Goode has thankfully promoted upon his fences; blaming it on "hippies and tree-huggers" and further if in a position of greed, these vandals appear to be the type who would have opportunistically paved the horse farm for their own self enrichment, rather than being able to see it as a piece of the public trust, meant, and needed for preservation as open-public-greenspace for all the citizens of this area.
Simpletons with guns are a dangerous lot as they know not when and why they fight, merely that they do until they have broken everything, including themselves.
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Three weeks ago, Bill Goode erected a Barack Obama campaign sign in front of his law firm's office on Johnston Street. The two-sided, 4x8 sign faces both lanes of traffic on Lafayette's busy four-lane street. About a week after it was erected, Goode says someone tried to smash the sign with a rock. A week ago, a vandal spray painted the letter "N" over the letter "O" in "Obama."
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I wonder how many David Duke signs were vandalized? I can't remember any.