Roadside Trash

 

 

 

Over the past few years, the trash has escaped from the trash can.

It’s gotten into our television, our computers, and now our roadside billboards. What may be seen as a simple and necessary pastime – driving down the road – has now become a dangerous journey through the world of indecency.

The other day, as I was in the car, my eyes were accosted by a billboard advertisement sporting an offensive word nearly six feet tall. This is not unusual. Everywhere I look, I’m confronted by enormous advertisements for lingerie adorned with scantily dressed women blown to more-than-life-size. Beer and alcohol ads dot the roadways, sporting crude or vulgar signs, words, or phrases. This roadside obscenity makes something as commonplaces as driving a hazardous venture through uncertain terrain.

Sure, in this country we have freedom of speech and of the press. This means that anyone can print anything he feels or believes without being slapped into jail. But it seems like this is going too far. When we can’t get from one place to the next for fear of exposure to roadside advertising, don’t we have a right to complain?