We've been having some substantial work done on our house, which means that between periods of frustrating inactivity it is overrun by armies of sub-contracted workers. Last week it was painters.
The sign gets a reaction from these transient visitors. By and large the sub-contracting bosses are not very pro-Kerry, although at least around us they profess to not be very pro-Bush either. And our general contractor says he may vote for Nader, or may stay home. At first I thought he was saying that to tease us, now I think he means it.
Several of the workers' cars have Kerry stickers.
The head painter, I'll call him 'Ernesto', mentioned in imperfect English that he'd seen our Kerry-Edwards sign. Ernesto told us with quiet pride that this was going to be his first chance to vote here since immigrating from Honduras.
His first US vote ever would be cast for Kerry, Ernesto said. 'Bush has not been good,' he explained.
A few days later, Ernesto waved a bunch of Kerry-Edwards signs from the back of his truck: all his friends are getting them.
Good for Ernesto and company. Always nice to see anyone paying attention for the first time, at least, as long as those signs came from the Dems and not someone else’s swale…
staying on the grassroots level of observation, I myself can happily report that, while I live in West Palm Beach’s city limits, and you’d expect the “traditional republican” enclave within the traditionally democratic county to face a barrage of right wing coaxing, the only people I’ve had knock on my door have been MoveOnPac and Florida Women Vote!, a project of Emily’s List…
Shame, tho, the Florida Women Vote representative was only there to talk about Kerry and Castor, and not the travesty against women’s freedoms being perpetrated sneakily through Amendment 1…Dear God, I hope Floridians read past the purposefully misleading first sentence that seems to guarantee freedom to the remainder of the amendment….
That’s a really good story.
In regards to Kerry signs, i had a quick question regarding my own.
My landlord today tore down my Kerry sign and tossed it in the trash and then kinda went off on me for having put it up to begin with. He made sure to tell me that he was “a Bush guy” and that he had made a point not to put Bush signs up all over the property, so that I shouldn’t put up any signs either.
Well, see, that’s all fine and dandy, but I figured since I rent what is in effect a free-standing house, I should be able to put up any sign I want. Not to mention that I’d probably have a problem with him putting up signs regardless of who it was for – because he doesn’t live here, I do. So, what are my rights are a renter? Can I put up a political sign on property I rent? Or does my landlord have the final say here?
Alex T.,
I’m not a lawyer but…
check your contract for clauses about signs or external decorations.
That said, if he’s renting the property to you, he probably wouldn’t be within his rights to put up political signs without YOUR permission, unless the contract explicitly gives him that right.
Likewise, he probably is not within his rights to take down your (political) signs unless you’ve previously agreed (in your rental agreement) not to deface the public facade with signs, and such. And unless the contract said that the landlord is entitled to take down such modifications, I don’t think he’s within his rights to trash YOUR property (the sign). …It’s a matter of order of operations, if you ignored a warning/request to take down the sign that cited the defacement(?) clause of your rental agreement, then he’d be within his rights to take it down,…
Another question entirely is whether you want to get into a legal/contractual fight with your landlord over this…
the only time to pick a fight with your landlord is when your bags are packed and you’ve got the key to your new place already.
i was learning landlord-tenant law in Elements when I said “ah-hah!” and got Code Enforcement to document the various unfixed things in my apartment. I knew I was safe because of the anti-retaliatory eviction statutes. Less than 12 hours after being notified by Code Enforcement that he would have to fix XYZ, my landlord served me with an eviction notice. Regardless. My lease had been up and I was month-to-month. He didn’t care about retaliatory eviction, and the judge didn’t either and kept sending us to “pretrial moderation.” Many, many fruitless courtroom hours later I gave up on the issue and found a nice condo.
it’s really stupid with the kerry sign thing, alex, but i don’t really think that having a sign in your yard is going to change anyone’s mind at this point…but having your landlord hate you can become a personal issue very quickly.