[Mpls] 1st Campaign Sign Vandalism Report of the Season

[Dyna Sluyter]

	I am none to happy to report the first campaign sign vandalism of the 
season- a Lydia Lee sign was thrown in  the street the other day and 
today it is totally missing. Now generally this is the work of kids 
with no proper toys to play with, but a trip around the neighborhood 
failed to turn up the sign so I suspect adults are the culprit(s) here. 
A lot of the landlords in the neighborhood are Republicans and I've 
seen them steal my DFL campaign signs before, but perhaps this is the 
work of the local gangbangers out to put a stop to any civilizing 
influence in the neighborhood.

	Which begs the question of how we are going to get decent voter 
turnout in the 'hoods when it's not safe for law abiding citizens to go 
to the polls. Never mind making the neighborhood safe so the campaign 
workers can come in and register and encourage folks to vote. And I 
hate to think of the our election judges having to safely find their 
way home late at night after a long day and maybe much of the night at 
the polls.

	Now about every  week or so I get another e-mail or flyer from R.T. 
encouraging me to help with the DFL campaigns from Kerry on down the 
ticket. This is a good thing, as helping elect more city friendly 
Democrats will benefit our city in the long run. Unfortunately rising 
crime in the areas with the greatest potential for improving voter 
turnout, the 'hood, could stop new voters before they even get to the 
polls.

	So R.T., we need a fully staffed police department to make it safe for 
us citizens of the 'hood to do are everyday activities like shopping, 
work, mowing the lawn, and most importantly... voting!

	As for the stolen campaign sign, I've been looking for an excuse to 
extend the fence all the way out to the front property line. Might as 
well make it a sturdy fence with 6' by 6' fenceposts sunk in concrete 4 
feet down. Maybe put a big brick planter in at the base of the fence, 
at least as tall as the tallest SUV bumper... they can hit it but 
they're gonna have to run, because their SUV won't! And heck, I could 
just as well nail the campaign signs to that fence...

        carrying on the campaign in Hawthorne,
                Dyna Sluyter
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