Editorial: Patriots vs. bureaucrats

As a fable of bureaucracy, the story of the welcome home signs falls somewhere between Orwell and Dilbert.

It starts with the heartfelt desire of an individual to express a simple emotion: Welcoming home a loved one who has served his or her country. The individual puts his sentiments onto a sign or goes out and buys a flag, hanging it on a highway overpass so that the returning soldier knows someone cares.

Acts of individual initiative set off alarms in the bureaucratic mindset. Those are my roads, my overpasses, the bureaucratic impulse screams. There must be some problem here that will justify my need to reclaim my turf.

So the state Highway Department decided in December that the homemade signs were a safety hazard. They could fall down and cause an accident, officials reasoned. Not that it had ever happened, they conceded, but it could. Better to take down all the signs and flags just in case.

In what only could have surprised a hardened bureaucrat, the people who put up the signs and flags to honor their loved ones didn't take kindly to the arbitrary decision to take them down. Objections from veterans groups caught the attention of politicians, who came up with a typical political/bureaucratic response: Gov. Deval Patrick created a task force to examine the problem.

That task force has come back with a solution only bureaucrats and politicians could love. The Highway Department will buy generic metal signs that meet all federal highway signage standards, featuring a flag background, the emblems of the military branches, and a standard message: "Welcome Home Troops! Thank You For Your Service!"

Under the proposal, which the Boston Globe reports is not final, the greeting signs will be put up in 20 or more strategic locations across the state. Anything standardized and under the strict control of the Highway Department satisfies the bureaucrats and politicians welcome any opportunity to make themselves look patriotic.

But anyone who thinks permanent metal signs can substitute for the hand-lettered bedsheet that says "Welcome back from Iraq, Uncle Bob," carefully placed so Uncle Bob can see it on his drive home from the base, has been collecting a government paycheck too long.

Homemade signs - whether greeting a solder or congratulating newlyweds, cheering on the Sox or even making a political statement - bring life to our dead highways and entertainment to our commutes. When they are attached inside the overpass fence, they pose no hazard. Cars passing underneath are more likely to be hit by a piece of the bridge than by falling signs.

MassHighway should worry less about harmless signs and more about crumbling bridges. Let the people decorate their highways. If a flag becomes tattered or a sign faded and torn, they should carefully take it down or clean it up. That's the mindset of a public servant, which is distinctively different from that of a bureaucrat.