An online petition demanding to tear down a famous Uncle Sam billboard in Washington state recently emerged online and has already gathered over 77,000 signatures as of the time of this article's publication. The petition argues that the billboard has often been used to post "racist and offensive statements", which, as the author argues, gives a "hateful impression" of the nearby city of Chehalis to everyone driving past the Uncle Sam sign.
Despite gaining a significant amount of supporters in the wake of the ongoing countrywide protests against police brutality and racism, some of the city's residents have stood up for the billboard and argued in an interview with the channel Q13 FOX of Seattle that the sign should be left alone.
"It’s a matter of free speech. People don’t like it, get your own billboard", nearby resident Lou Desmond said. Another local, Don Theus, added to that: "As long as I can remember, that sign has been there. So, I don’t pay no attention to it because I don’t have to read it".
The billboard, featuring an image of Uncle Sam, was installed in the 1970s by a local farmer named Alfred Hamilton, who has regularly been posting short, often sarcastic messages on it, promoting his conservative political views. Hamilton has touched on a variety of issues with his messages, such as opposing big government, social welfare programmes, minimum wage increases, abortion, and homosexuality.
Despite numerous attempts by local residents and the government to remove the billboard, and even to burn it down, Hamilton kept it intact and continued to post messages until he died in 2004. His heirs have continued his work since then.