'Leetha Yee was visiting family in Bethesda. She hung a left from Old Georgetown Road onto Tuckerman Lane, and there it was: an 'Adopt a Highway' sign that bore the name of the Tyranny Response Team.

Leetha has since discovered that TRT lobbies aggressively for total gun rights. The Web site of its Maryland affiliate (www.trt-md.org) is quite an education.

It features a disdainful article about handgun control and a collection of doom-predicting quotes from various gun enthusiasts. It is full of such phrases as 'the hand of oppression' and 'destroy our freedoms.' It calls people who want to control firearms in any way 'gun grabbers.'

So exactly what does it mean for TRT to have adopted a slab of Montgomery County highway? 'If, God forbid, I toss a gum wrapper out the window, would the Tyranny Response Team, armed in full SWAT gear, swoop down on my car?' Leetha writes, from her home in Kentfield, Calif.

To that I add two questions of my own:

Why would TRT want to adopt a highway?

And will Maryland officials allow any organization to adopt one?

My first question will have to go unanswered. I asked it by an e-mail, sent to the webmaster at TRT. I got no response. I asked it again by U.S. mail. Again no response. No phone number is listed on the Web site.

As for state policy, Kellie Boulware, a spokeswoman for the Maryland State Highway Administration, said there is a 'clause in the agreement, saying that we reserve the right to question whether or not a particular group should be part of the program.'

The reasoning: 'A controversial or disliked group could have their safety endangered, or could attract increased vandalism on their stretch of road,' Kellie said.

Certain groups also could be too distasteful for the locals. So it went in 1999, when Anne Arundel County dropped its Adopt a Highway program rather than allow the Ku Klux Klan to participate.

'I don't think the county executive regrets it one bit,' said a spokesman. Non-political road adopters have continued to volunteer on Anne Arundel cleanup crews, so 'there were no additional costs for doing away with the program,' the spokesman said. The state government controls the 'adopt' program on state highways. County governments control it on county roads.

Esther Bowring, a spokeswoman for the Montgomery County Department of Public Works and Transportation, said, 'we have gotten no complaints' about TRT's adoption of a county road. You won't hear any complaints from this corner, either.

Any organization has the right to pick up litter and reap a little publicity for it. The slope gets mighty slippery if Maryland or Montgomery County denies this right to controversial outfits simply because they are controversial.

I'd even favor letting the Klan adopt a highway. Yes, really. As long as Adopt a Highway signs don't display inflammatory slogans or views -- and none does -- I can't see a problem.

Gay groups and drug legalization groups have adopted highways -- and so have the Boy Scouts of America and ladies' sewing circles. Freedom belongs to everyone.

I can see why Leetha was surprised to hang that left and see that sign. But litter is a smaller problem than limiting the right to collect it." (Bob Levey, Washington Post, January 23, 2003)