Dear Sir,
As part of the effort to publicize our 12th Annual Arts & Crafts Show, the American Legion Auxiliary Unit 7 in Chapala had a bilingual banner made for display near Chapala’s main intersection.
This banner crossed no street and was suspended between two palm trees. It was designed to be displayed throughout November. One of our members went to a great deal of trouble getting permission from city authorities to display the banner.
It was on display for a week and a half when we discovered that it had disappeared. Since we expected to use the banner in future years, we had made a significant investment. We could not imagine why anyone would want to take down our sign.
The member who had worked so diligently to get permission for the placement of the banner returned to city hall to inquire why it was removed and to ask for its return.
Imagine our surprise when officials told us they had given no order for it to be taken down. We put the whole thing down as a prank, until our president received an anonymous email, quoted below in its entirety.
“Dear Sharon, I have asked Joan to forward this on to you. As she will tell you, my husband and I are the ones who have erased all of the graffiti in San Antonio, and he is the one leading the group that is erasing the graffiti in Chapala. We also clean posts of publication and pick up garbage. I hope you can appreciate our work. Saludos.
Banners: How can the local authority give permission to put something across a state or federal highway??
Traffic hazard – Do you want people trying to read the banners when they are driving?? Actually, I don’t think people read them. Some of them cannot be read. Too much info. Letters too small. Bad coloring. Etc.
Reasons for NOT putting up banners. Easy to advertise here. Three Spanish weeklies. One English weekly. Two English monthlies. Bulletin boards everywhere.
Too much garbage generated. Pay to dump it by weight?? Too much money spent. Could go to charities. Cheaper tickets.
Northern Lights Festival last year. Whole center section in the Ojo. Pocket-size guide. Flyers on every post.
Website. Know that lots went into the trash because I saw them there.
History of our fight: Spring of 2011, started taking banners down once the event had passed. Realized quickly how much garbage was being generated. Started taking banners down as soon as they were put up (emphasis added). Imagine what it would be like if every business or organization put up banners. Now posts are painted white and “NO ANUNCIAR” is stenciled on most of them. Just plain too much trash.”
While the American Legion Auxiliary Unit 7 appreciates the hard work done in cleaning up graffiti, we would like to ask this group what right they have to steal other organizations’ banners, which are used to reach the people who do not read the publications listed above.
We put hard earned money into the designing and printing of that banner thinking we would have it for years to come. Now our charity money has taken a loss. While you may not like the banners, Chapala city hall is authorized to permit their display and allowed us to do so. You may feel that removing banners helps the environment or beautifies Chapala, but we have another word for it: theft.
While this organization may not have removed this particular banner, they have admitted that they are in the practice of taking them down. We have checked with several organizations, and many have had their banners removed prior to their events. Does this group not realize that organizations pay money for these and receive official permission to display them? Do they also not realize that removing the signs is a criminal act?
We would ask this organization to change its policy and leave the banners alone. The work that they do in painting over graffiti is appreciated. But pulling down banners, or taking down posters prior to their event date is nothing other than poor citizenship.
Sharon Ottsman,
president American Legion Auxiliary Unit 7