Wrong Way: How Signs are Ruining America
Signs.
For millennia, they’ve been telling us where to go, what to do, and how much service we’ll receive relative to the presence of our shirt and/or shoes. It started innocently enough — cave paintings of deer to indicate good hunting grounds. But did it stop there? Of course not. We got "Do Not Enter." We got "Employees Must Wash Hands." We got “Yield,” the most passive-aggressive sign of them all.
Signs pretend to help us, but they're really just bossy rectangles of metal and plastic, screaming in bold, sans-serif fonts about things we should already know. "Caution: Hot Coffee." Thank god they told me — I was seconds away from pouring it into my eyes.
But now the scourge has escalated. Signs aren't just bossing us around anymore; they're contradicting themselves. In Texas, it’s been mandated that signs containing the 10 Commandments be posted in every classroom. Meanwhile, in Idaho, signs with basically the same overall message that "All are welcome" are mandated to be torn down! I don’t know what to think.
Do signs want us to love our neighbor or not?! Why are they so unclear? It’s flammable/inflammable all over again!
Can’t we just admit it? Signs are not our friends. Signs are loud, judgmental polygons that assume we’d spontaneously combust without their constant direction.
As for traffic lights, closed captions, and T-shirts with slogans on them? Let’s save that battle for another day.
This is a work of satire. Characters and situations may be created for comic effect. Image credit: Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Getty Images
JUST THE FACTS
- A new Idaho state law prohibits any classroom from displaying signs deemed political or ideological, including teacher Sarah Inama’s “Everyone is Welcome Here” sign, which Attorney General Raúl Labrador ruled violates the law due to its perceived political origins.
- Labrador said the message originated from a “social movement” tied to Democratic fundraising. Critics argue the poster responded to racist graffiti, not partisan politics, and cite errors in the state’s timeline and claims.
- Inama resigned after refusing to remove the inclusion-themed poster, saying it reflects educational values — not politics — and aligns with civil rights laws protecting equal treatment in schools.
- Inama, now with the Boise School District, maintains that telling students they belong isn’t political: “Inclusion in education isn’t an opinion—it’s a legal and moral obligation.” She’s awaiting word on what the law means for her new classroom.
- This comes amid the passing of a Texas state law, effective this school year beginning in September, requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in classrooms. Free speech advocates argue that such laws allow viewpoint-based suppression and violate religious freedom.
Sources: MSNBC, Texas Tribune, New York Post, and KTVB.