To the editor:

I wince at the thought that ideas expressed below may be more worthy of attention if only they were writ large, as in, to be specific, magic marker on a big piece of cardboard. If the medium is the message, then you, reader, are deprived of the full impact of my thoughts by nothing other than this: format. Restriction of format — signs — at city commission meetings has some local folks getting their shorts in a knot. (Apparently the ACLU wears shorts, too.)

But only method of expression, not content, is restricted by the decorum standard A would-be sign carrier can simply step to the microphone and speak text instead of displaying it, and the idea will be heard instead of read. Of course, the intellectual shortcomings of catchy sloganeering will become readily apparent.

For example, suppose someone steps up to the microphone and states, as did the actual text of a recent sign, “Wal-Mart sucks the life out of our community.”

“Do you have any more comment? Anything to add?”

“No, that’s it.”

Hmmm. Not much there, is there? Yet, bereft of the opportunity for sign-carrying demonstration — an activity much-loved hereabouts by protesters old and young — and faced with the embarrassing prospect of uttering banal one-liners, speakers may be encouraged to expand upon their thoughts and add something useful to public discourse — such as justification for their position, rather than mere statement of position alone. Replacing exhibitionism with decorum, far from restricting the flow of ideas, may well increase it.

Robert Babcock,

Lawrence