What would Freud say? Or Jesse Jackson?

A few months ago, a billboard company put up a sign alongside THE major highway through our town. It's a major U.S. route to the beach for hundreds of thousands of people every summer.

I'm not really sure how long it had been up before I noticed it but it did make me chuckle at the "suggestive nature" of the sign when I finally did see it. To show you what I mean...."heeeeere's your sign": (sorry but I just had to do that)



For anyone lacking a bit of horticultural knowledge, that just happens to be a willow limb. Am I wrong to assume that the "suggested message" here is pussywillow? If that isn't what you see there, then by all means, please offer your interpretations in the comments.

That being said, I'd also like to mention that I live in Alabama. This is quite possibly the most racially-charged state in the Northern Hemisphere. There are thousands of racial discrimination lawsuits pending in our judicial system at any one moment. Some of them are truly justified but there are far more, in my opinion, that are frivolous at best. The Ku Klux Klan is still pretty active in parts of the state, as well as the Sons of the Confederacy. I'm a member of neither and have no desire to be but I mentioned that to give an example of the frivolity of one of the suits. Just off of Interstate 65 near Prattville, Alabama, a gentleman belonging to the Sons of the Confederacy has erected a huge flagpole and flies the Confederate Battle Flag 24/7. I'm talking a 100-foot pole with a huge flag on it, probably 25 feet in length. Lights to illuminate it at night, big stone monument beside it...the works. He is/was being sued for this display of that flag...on his own property, that just happens to be located beside the interstate. Up until a few years ago, the Confederate flag flew over the State capitol building. Jesse Jackson, Joe Reid (Chairman of the Alabama Democratic Conference) and State Representative Alvin Holmes(D) got together and pitched a hissy fit and succeeded in getting that flag banned from flying over state government properties because it suggested the loyalties to a time when slavery was acceptable. It was a big stink when it all happened and some people didn't like the removal and subsequent ban. Several activist groups for both sides took the court ruling and ran like hell with it, some trying to protect and others trying to persecute.

Kinda got the racism idea now?

OK...all that just to ask your opinions on the newest sign erected a few hundred yards from the one shown above.




One might initially think of "Hang in there" or something along those lines. Right? Remember....we're in the South. Good ol' "Heart of Dixie."

A friend of mine pointed out that it could be interpreted as "a 'coon hanging from a tree". And given that "coon" is/was a derogatory term often directed at blacks, and that blacks were hung (hanged?) from trees back during the time of civil unrest here in the South. How long do you think this sign will stay up? Wouldn't this be as suggestive as the flag issue? Maybe even to a higher degree since the hangings were murderous in nature and rarely was anyone ever punished for them. The lawmen were as segregated as anyone else in those days.

Before anyone leaves me a hate comment or calls me a racist, let me say that I don't care one way or the other about the sign. Or the flag. Or any other racial BS. If you're plaid and treat me with respect, then you'll be respected. Otherwise, you'll reap what you sow around me. I don't owe anybody anything as a result of something my ancestors did to someone else's ancestors 200 years ago. You can take that up with them when you die and run across them in the afterlife or something. I was just bringing this matter to the table to see if anyone else thought like my friend did. I am curious to see what kind of action, if any, might stem from the "psychoanalytic interpretations" of the sign. I'll keep an eye on it and let you know if anything happens.

See how bored I am? And the levels I'm stooping to for post material?

How's your weekend going?