The Ashe Mountain Times used its freedom of the press to suppress the message of somebody exercising his freedom of speech. Reportedly, somebody in the teeny town of Lansing painted an obscene message on his truck. The only difference between this and normal graffiti is that it was directed toward town officials. These days, the mystery is only a matter of which obscene remark this particular citizen chose to make. There are so many choices.

Evidently, the town had no sign ordinance, and the nuisance ordinances don’t address paint on trucks. The squabbles ensuing over the incident are sure to fuel whatever fire initially set the paint in motion. Reportedly, a number of citizens called the town with requests to donate paint so government could fix the privately-owned truck. It is unclear whether or not the truck was on private property, as it was parked “between a downtown hardware store and the Lansing Fire Department.”