Saturday, September 13, 2008

Obama Sign In Yard Stirs Up Neighbors

A sign in one Barefoot Bay yard is stirring up a controversy. Neighbors of Andy Lacasse say the sign, which says "OBAMA HALF-BREED MUSLIN " breaches the fine line between free speech and inappropriateness. "I got nothing good to say about Obama," Lacasse told local news. Lacasse put the sign in his front yard four days ago. "If I see anybody touching that sign, I got a club sitting right over there," Lacasse said. The Korean War veteran said he was a registered Democrat until Obama won the nomination. "That's the Democratic Party.They're nothing but a bunch of cutthroats. Like I always said, you show me an honest politician, I'll show you an honest thief," Lacasse said. But Lacasse's neighbors are not all content with letting him show his opinion where everyone can see it. "When you use words in that nature, people tend to discount anything you have to say," said Steve Rice. "If you're going to attract attention, at least make sure your spelling is right." Rice was referring to the misspelling of Muslim. He lives a couple streets away and says everyone is talking about the sign. He said he has no problem with free speech. He just doesn't think it's appropriate to bring race into the issue.Rice dropped by to chat with Lacasse, whom he hadn't met before. They talked about campaign tactics and the fact Rice was a Clinton supporter. "Are you happy what they did to her?" Lacasse asked. "Of course not, but am I going to post a sign going after a race or group of people because of it? No, I'm going to say vote for someone else," Rice replied. "Look what he's doing to Palin. Come on. He got people going to Alaska, looking for something to say bad about her," Lacasse said. Lacasse said he plans to put an even bigger sign in place of the small handmade one that is already there.