This just in from The Daily Heller‘s undercover Hudson Valley correspondent:
“We keep finding these signs declaring ‘Free Speech Zones’—they’re all over the place, we’ve clocked them from San Fran to Saugerties. Friends kept asking, ‘what’s up with that?’ Well, after a little digging, we found out. The signs are not placed by officialdom, they’re a citizen action. They tip-toe into our landscape, co-opting the graphic language of the regulatory state and hide in plain site. Hide? Yes, but when found they scream out (even if the scream is a stage whisper). It’s satisfyingly subversive, sneaky even. The signs are manufactured to the standards of government codes using high-density aluminum, reflective paint and are installed with ‘tamper-proof’ hardware. (Meaning once up, they’re damn hard to remove.) It’s no secret that the basic tenets of ye olde American Constitution are being battered and tested. This isn’t a ‘maybe’ or an opinion, it’s a fact. As the F.A.C.T. (the First Amendment Culture Team) has stated: ‘Freedom of Speech is the foundational principal in the First Amendment; the entire nation is a free-speech zone. When federal policies push to ban books from public libraries, fire professors, censor museum curators and delete scientific data, a fight for free speech in all forms is essential.’
“The signs address this crisis in a way that is a bit of a head-scratcher. We like designs that cause a double-take, that create conversation and cry out for awareness. We like watching people see these signs and stop in their tracks. It’s a reminder to the citizenry of their rights; it’s a reclaiming of public space, a way of drawing a line in the sand.
“These signs don’t actually create free-speech zones—they remind us we’re already standing in one. What’s more—the most unscientific of polls has shown that most Americans believe wholeheartedly in the rights carved out in the First Amendment; with that in mind, starting with Free Speech seems wise. It’s a right that folks on any side of the aisle should agree on; if we need an issue to build a bridge between the fractured citizenry, this could be it. I’d wager other signs in this series are on the drawing board; designs addressing Freedom of Worship and Freedom to Assemble might be up next.”
Editor’s note: Today, Dec. 15, is First Amendment Day.
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