A Favor and a Warning

Dear Readers,

Thank you for bearing with me! When I started this blog, I hoped to post more frequently than I have been. A once-a-month frequency was what I expected of myself. Except that grad school happened and got in the way for a good two years. But it's nice to see that people are interested in what signs I find and what research I produce. I know some of you by name, but many of you I don't. Regardless, thank you!

I have a favor to ask. When I started, I liked the idea of being able to take road trips and seeking out these signs on my own. The problem is that many states have such signs, and as much as I would like to fly out to Nevada, for example, I don't have the time or money to afford such a trip. So if you see such signs, please take pictures and send them my way! You can send them via this website (there's a contact form on the right). If you know me more personally, you probably know of other methods of communication. Regardless, I can't do this on my own (Ohio is definitely an example of a friend being nice to me and letting me use their picture). They can be easy to miss, but often a website has a collection of what/where they are. Thank you in advance!

Is this affecting my social life?

In addition to the favor, I also have a warning. These signs, and by extension, my research, are windows to the past of the state in question. As much as I hate to say it, our history as a people, as a state, and as a country, can be extremely ugly sometimes. The history of slavery lasted over 200 years, and is still difficult to discuss among individuals and among groups. We can witness its constant impact on our society with the discussion of #BlackLivesMatter. While I want to avoid politics on this blog, and focus on what our past looks like, it may be hard to do so. It will also be hard to avoid hurting people with what I talk about, because our past isn't as pretty as we'd like. It may be wondrous, but in the sense of wondering how people could do such things. I'm working on one such hard post. Many of you readers who know me personally know that political correctness isn't exactly my thing. In addition, it's never been too difficult for me to accept or understand certain morals or attitudes of the past because I understand them to be of the past. Almost like it's a different planet with an entirely different culture from the modern world we live in now.

Despite those facets of my personality, it's been hard to write some words from past legislation or past books. In the next post, it may be hard for many of you to read what I write and think "how could she discuss this?" or even "how did this happen?" All I can say to you is that it did, and that these attitudes no longer persist in such strong forms now. I understand if you do not want to read such things. But I encourage that you do. It may be hard to face the ugly and rough aspects of our state and society. But I think that is part of what it means to love it. This country clearly flawed in many aspects (its health care system needs a huge fix), but I could never see myself live anywhere else. The same goes for North Carolina; I have issues with HB 2, but it's still the state I love (even though I'd love to live in DC at some point in my life, for longer than a summer). Regardless, I will write some sort of warning on the post, so if you want to not read the material, you will be able to see the post and not read it immediately.

Knitting blankets may affect my social life as well tbh

Thank you to all my readers so far! Please spread the news about my blog, so I can get more pictures and readers! I think this is all interesting stuff, and I hope you do, too!

Jill

TL;DR: Please find me more signs! Take pictures and send them my way. Some posts may disturb people (and myself) in some way, but I think they need to be discussed. I will have warnings on such posts.