‘Ugly’ is in the eye of the beholder

The outrage over the now much-talked-about signs is cultural hegemony. People talk about town charm with all the authority of a Nazi ordering the destruction of "subversive" art. By saying that the signs are ugly; people are necessarily implying that they know what ugly is.

They are certainly entitled to their opinion, but their definition of ugly isn’t going to be the same as anyone else’s definition of ugly.

My point to all those who are calling for the signs to be brought down is this: Beware. There may well come a time when your house, hairdo, car, pet or any other object subject to some aesthetic quantification that you may own, will find itself on the ugly list.

Thank God for the First Amendment, which serves to protect all of us from such self-righteous endeavors made by narrow-minded critics.

Demonizing the entrepreneur who constructed these signs is shameful. When you consider the vastness of ecological destruction brought by strip mines and other industry in this region, this guy’s sins aren’t too bad.

That being said; I look out of my back window and see one of those animated signs, and it’s pretty cool, I wish there were more.

Christopher Emil Johnson
Abingdon, Va.