MIKE ROGERS was a big winner in Tuesday’s Republican primary. A state senator, Rogers is now just one voting day away from a seat in the Congress of The United States of America.Tiger Woods should win golf tournaments as easily ...
But the senator may have left something of a sour taste off all those blue-and-white signs his supporters plastered along the U. S. 431 median north of Anniston.
I’m not sure when they were put there, perhaps Monday evening or maybe just after daylight Tuesday in that the signs screamed “today” as part of the message.
Whatever, there were hundreds of them. It was ugly at its ugliest and, considering the man’s popularity in our community, absolutely unnecessary.
Mr. Rogers is not alone in the despoiling of the landscape in quest of a few votes. And perhaps it is unfair to single out the Rogers’ campaign.
I do so for one simple reason. I happened to be driving U.S. 431 Tuesday morning and the profusion of Mr. Rogers’ signs were more than a bit disturbing to me. And to others, too, off what I’ve heard over the past two days.
But ignoring state and city ordinances in quest of public office has become as common as shaking hands and kissing babies.
The rationale is:
“Everybody puts out those things.”
And:
“They do it, we have to do it, too.”
It’s far-fetched, of course, but if I walk down the street and blow somebody away, it would not justify you in doing the same.
That’s a bit simplistic (fact is, it’s childish), but not inaccurate.
The law is very clear:
“[s]igns, markers and advertising on the rights-of-way of state controlled highways are prohibited except those official signs or markers placed thereon by the State Department of Transportation or under its authority.”
That is straight forward, “legalese” it ain’t.
But there is some good news, albeit something of a windmill against the wind.
On my way to work Tuesday morning, there was a city of Anniston employee in the vicinity of the former Shoney’s Restaurant. He was walking along, pulling up the blue-and-white signs, and tossing them into a pickup truck.
I liked that.
But it then occurred to me that I was also looking at our tax dollars cleaning up a politician’s litter.
“We do it all the time,” said Cindy Clark, who works in the Anniston Public Works Department. “The only trouble is, there’s more of them than there is of us.”
The answer is as simple as the law itself.
Those running for public office should begin abiding by that law ... and stop littering our roadsides with their signs ...
