Sign of the Times

Every day Santa Monicans receive messages from on high. They are pithy, sometimes scolding, usually political, occasionally enigmatic, and mostly topical. And they always seem to hit a nerve.

The messages are laid out neatly on a lighted sign, the kind typically used to announce a fried chicken special or the cost of a gallon of gas, mounted atop a 15-foot pole.

The sign belongs to New Roads High School, just inside the eastern edge of town, on Olympic Boulevard.

About once a week the messages change. If you don't follow the news, you won't get most of them.

One recently said, "Hugo. Really?" in regard to Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez' speech comparing President Bush to Beelzebub.

On a quest to find the messenger, the Lens recently called the school, and, with little rigmarole, was put right through to David Bryan, the head honcho of the four New Roads campuses located in Santa Monica, LA and Malibu. He's the man behind the messages, which he puts up whenever the mood strikes.

“They come to me when I’m reading the news, or maybe just listening to someone talking to me, ” Bryan says.

Bryan acknowledges his signage is often controversial, but he's not averse to receiving feedback, of which he gets plenty. "I've received some really irate letters from people and calls from parents."

He has received heated phone calls and has even had commuters along Olympic get out of their cars to visit and give him a piece of their mind.

It's clear by some of the sign's past greatest hits that the man is not a member of the John Birch Society: "Our Supreme Court. Oy vey." "Question Your Leaders." "If You Don't Vote, Don't Whine." "Face it. Governments lie." "Last Day. 1-20-09." "How Long Will We Put Up With It."

The most controversial message so far? "Support the UN," posted during the debates in the United Nations prior to the United States' invasion of Iraq.

Bryan, who sounds like an easy-going fellow, was taken aback by the level of anger that one aroused. "I received just these vitriolic letters. I was amazed."

He does, however, get at least as much support for his clever, pointed messages as he does scorn.

Not all of them are political. He often will elicit ideas from students. They plan on putting up a message of hope for the people of Darfur during the upcoming Human Rights Day.

It all started out when he put up a simple note of congratulations to the high school's first graduating class in the Spring of 2000, as school leaders tend to do.

"After that I guess it dawned on me I could just start putting up other things, " he said, remembering when he discovered the potential of turning the school's signage into a public sounding board.

One of Bryan's favorites? "Proceed with passion."

"I thought that was a pretty good for drivers to read."

The sign and its ever changes messages have become so noticed by the public that one citizen has suggested keeping a photographic history of the school by taking pictures of each sign.

Bryan seems to have a lot of fun with it. "I always think about how I'd like to have it linked to my computer. I'd be playing with it all day," he chuckles.

Typical to his style, he would use the power of electronics to tweak people if he could. "I would write, 'Hey you in the red Mustang! Slow down!'"