{"id":9284,"date":"2015-11-29T08:33:23","date_gmt":"2015-11-29T15:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=9284"},"modified":"2015-11-29T08:33:23","modified_gmt":"2015-11-29T15:33:23","slug":"prairie-lights-on-city-signs-a-little-honesty-goes-a-long-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2015\/11\/prairie-lights-on-city-signs-a-little-honesty-goes-a-long-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Prairie Lights: On city signs, a little honesty goes a long way"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sign\"<\/a>

Last Best News would like to announce that its annual convention, which had been planned for Harris County, Ga., is looking for another venue. That’s Sheriff Jolley and his sign.<\/p><\/div>\n

Mike Jolley, the sheriff down in Harris County, Ga., has been making headlines<\/a> for erecting an in-your-face sign in front of his office.<\/p>\n

“Warning,\u201d the sign reads: \u201cHarris County is politically incorrect. We say: Merry Christmas, God Bless America and In God We Trust. We salute our troops and our flag. If this offends you \u2026 LEAVE!”<\/p>\n

The sheriff probably thinks he\u2019s harking back to a better time in our history, and I suppose he is. I\u2019m old enough to remember those golden days myself. They were a time when people expressed gratitude, reverence and respect in a gentle voice, expecting nothing in return.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s popular to use those simple virtues to bludgeon people who hold opposing viewpoints, to put down others\u2019 beliefs, to pick a fight. But still, I want to thank the sheriff for putting that sign up. Chances were slim that I was going to visit Harris County, Ga., anyway, but now I can just scratch it off my list and be done with it.<\/p>\n

I only wish other elected officials would exercise the same aggressive honesty, so that travelers, tourists and people looking to relocate would know exactly what they were in for.<\/p>\n

Would Mayor Tom Hanel consider putting up signs at all the principal entrances to the city of Billings? They could read: \u201cWarning: No matter how much it snows, we\u2019re only going to plow a few streets. If you buy a house, it\u2019s probably going to be run into by a drunk driver. And don\u2019t complain about that smell. If you don\u2019t like roasting sugar beets \u2026 GET THE HELL OUT!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Or how about Butte: \u201cBeware: Butte is grammatically incorrect. We say \u2018youse guys\u2019 because we like the sound of it, not because we don\u2019t know any better. Don\u2019t complain about the cold. We know it\u2019s cold. And yeah, that\u2019s a very big hole and we\u2019re aware of it. If youse don\u2019t like it \u2026 SCRAM!\u201d<\/p>\n

Missoula? \u201cWelcome to our peaceful community, but be careful. You call it \u2018Rape City\u2019 and we might punch you in the nose. Yes, a river does run through it. We hadn\u2019t heard that one before. And technically, it\u2019s not fog. It\u2019s an inversion. If you think you need sunlight \u2026 HIT THE ROAD, DUDE!\u201d<\/p>\n

Miles City? \u201cYou have been warned: Miles City is not a small town. It\u2019s exactly as big as we want it to be. Hell, we\u2019ve got a Wal-Mart. We\u2019ll take your money but not your advice. If you don\u2019t like bucking horses, high water and old cowboys telling very long stories \u2026 GIT!\u201d<\/p>\n

Sidney? \u201cWarning: If you\u2019ve got even mild motion sickness, you might as well turn around right now. This is the city of ups and downs, booms and busts and a never-ending rollercoaster ride. We like beets and oil and football. You want to build a motel, take a number. You want to make cracks about this being the capital of West Dakota \u2026 VAMOOSE!\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe the whole state of Montana needs a sign: \u201cWelcome to Montana. You\u2019re going to be here awhile, even at 80 mph. We\u2019re no crazier than anybody else; those were isolated incidents. We have built some new rest stops, we swear. That\u2019s right, no sales tax. If you like it here \u2026 just say YOU BET!\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s face it, the country itself could use a sign, since the Statue of Liberty is no longer quite sufficient.<\/p>\n

How\u2019s this: \u201cWelcome to the United States. Conditions may apply. If you come from a nation where bad people are doing terrible things, that may be grounds for exclusion. If you practice a \u2018religion\u2019 that most Americans are uncomfortable with, move along. Also, this is a democracy. If you\u2019re not willing to live at a fever pitch for two solid years out of every four, passionately involved in the contact sport of presidential elections \u2026 GO AWAY! (We almost said Adios, but this is an English-only country.)\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mike Jolley, the sheriff down in Harris County, Ga., has been making headlines for erecting an in-your-face sign in front of his office. “Warning,\u201d the sign reads: \u201cHarris County is politically incorrect. We say: Merry Christmas, God Bless America and In God We Trust. We salute our troops and our flag. If this offends you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[3440,3439,3438],"class_list":["post-9284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prairie-lights","tag-georgia","tag-harris-county","tag-mike-jolley","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}