{"id":44218,"date":"2020-09-01T02:20:41","date_gmt":"2020-09-01T02:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=44218"},"modified":"2020-09-01T02:20:41","modified_gmt":"2020-09-01T02:20:41","slug":"no-signs-or-bumper-stickers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=44218","title":{"rendered":"No signs or bumper stickers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I had hoped since I became a “civilian” who had retired from daily print journalism that I could place a bumper sticker on my vehicle and a sign in my front yard proclaiming my support for a presidential candidate.<\/p>\n

Then I took on a freelance gig writing for a weekly newspaper company. So … my “civilian”<\/em> days are over for the time being.<\/p>\n

There’s another concern that I am a bit reluctant to divulge, but I will anyhow. It’s a concern over whether my stated preference for the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris ticket for president\/vice president would attract vandals.<\/p>\n

We happen to live in Trump Country, which is home to some extremely zealous admirers of the current president of the United States. I don’t begrudge them their zeal on behalf of their guy. I do begrudge how some of them might react to the other part of the country that favors the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n

The last bumper sticker I put on my vehicle was in 1968, when Robert F. Kennedy ran for president. I wasn’t old enough to vote then, but I wanted my friends and neighbors in Oregon to know I wanted RFK to be elected president that year.<\/p>\n

Fate, tragically, intervened.<\/p>\n

I went into the Army that year. I came out in 1970. I enrolled in college and became involved in the 1972 campaign of George McGovern. I didn’t display a bumper sticker.<\/p>\n

Then I went to work for newspapers. I stayed the course for nearly 37 years. During that time I adhered to the mostly unwritten rule that I shouldn’t reveal my political bias with a bumper sticker or a yard sign. Reporters are supposed to present the image of political neutrality.<\/p>\n

So here we are, much farther down a long and winding road. I will honor the unwritten neutrality rule that reporters should follow for as long as I am reporting on the community to which I am assigned.<\/p>\n

These are extremely contentious times, too. So I will protect my motor vehicle or my home from being damaged by those who disagree with my choice for president and vice president.<\/p>\n\n

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I had hoped since I became a “civilian” who had retired from daily print journalism that I could place a bumper sticker on my vehicle and a sign in my front yard proclaiming my support for a presidential candidate. Then I took on a freelance gig writing for a weekly newspaper company. So … my … Continue reading No signs or bumper stickers<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[7225,1424,2505],"class_list":["post-44218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-2020-election","tag-donald-trump","tag-joe-biden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44220,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44218\/revisions\/44220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}