And Oh Yeah . . . One Ticketing for a Messaging Issue

Oh Yeah.

I almost forgot to mention that as I was leaving the protest rally to Save Our Texas Schools, I came upon a scene that had developed just outside the capitol grounds.

One of us was getting a ticket.

A small crowd had gathered just outside the south entrance gate and a woman was asking for crowd volunteers who had witnessed what had just happened. Now as it turns out, what had just happened was that a young woman, a teacher, was being ticketed for her illegal usage of chalk.

A teacher being ticketed for writing on the sidewalk with chalk.

How ironic is that?

She was surrounded by eight, count ‘em, eight Department of Public Safety officers, several of them were on bikes and wore blue bike helmets. The rest of them were in their regular khaki uniforms and cowboy hats.

One of them was busy writing on a ticket book. The rest of them were watching.

And no, the DPS has not been able to find and arrest the nihilists who torched the governor’s mansion a couple of years ago, but gosh darn it, they caught this teacher writing pro-education messages on the sidewalk with her chalk.

Caught her red-handed.

Now the irony deepens because what could have gone unnoticed and un-regarded by the public and the police have now not gone unnoticed. In fact, photographs of her messages now appear on the internet.

Thanks to the DPS.

Here is a shot of the crowd that formed. See? Two sets of DPS troopers.

Here is another shot. The guy in the blue helmet has the ticket book and he is receiving a lesson in government relations and first amendment rights from a teacher.

Here are shots of the results of this teacher’s dastardly act. Nice block handwriting. A practiced hand with chalk as a messaging tool I think.

Simple messages conveyed in a simple way that will wash away with a spring rain now enshrined on the internet.