Signs of the Times

Today is, among other things, the 230th Birthday of the United States Marine Corps. Happy Birthday, Marines.

It's also the day after the day after an election here in Virginia, and I note with disappointment (as I do every election year) the profusion of campaign signs still standing along the roadside. How long will they stand? I wish, just once, that a candidate would make a campaign promise to clean up all campaign signs within 24 hours of the election.

Most of the signs posted during the campaign along the roads I usually travel promote the two candidates for the local member of the House of Delegates. I saw plenty for both of the candidates yesterday, but today, I only saw the signs promoting the (re-elected) Republican incumbent. The Democratic challenger's signs had all disappeared.

What does this say about these two politicians? Is the winner just lazy, or does he not care about the cleanliness of his district? Does this make the challenger a better person, taking more pride in cleaning up her mess?

Maybe it's something else - smug gloating on the part of the winner (I won, so look at my signs for a while longer!) and shame on the part of the loser (I don't want to remind anyone I even ran).

Probably it doesn't mean anything, but it's interesting to speculate.