So, here’s a thing that happened in our quiet little subdivision…
Several of the homes here have signs or flags out front, including ours. One yard sign said “Black Lives Matter & Justice For All,” while my home and the others had the garden-style flags which say “In this house we believe Science is Real | Black Lives Matter | Love is Love | Women’s Rights are Human Rights | Kindness is Everything.” Someone decided we shouldn’t share our views in this manner. They trespassed on our properties, stole the sign and the flags, and then attempted to burn them in the middle of the street, leaving the charred remains in front of my house.
I do not consider myself to be an alarmist but I do find this reminiscent of the antics of the KKK who burned crosses in the middle of the night in front of targeted homes. Someone wants to make a statement. Someone wants to instill fear. Someone wants to tell us our kind – loving, compassionate, and yes, liberal human beings – are not welcome here.
I don’t know who did this. I don’t know if it was someone from the neighborhood or an outsider. I do know that the fear they are attempting to instill is their own fear being projected on us. I don’t know what they are afraid of, but they are afraid. Anyone who does something like this is afraid. If they weren’t, we’d be talking with each other, not lighting flags and signs on fire in the middle of the street, in the middle of the night.
During the previous election cycle, one of my neighbors stopped to say she liked my Biden/Harris sign. And then she said something which, at the time, made me laugh: “We need to know where the safe houses are.” In hindsight, her thoughts may have been prescient.
I will not give in to the fear others may wish to instill in me. It is not my nature. I will do what needs to be done, to support and protect my family, my friends, my neighbors, and anyone who is attacked, marginalized, or disenfranchised by the ignorant among us.
Here’s the crux of the matter: we all bleed red. We don’t have to share the same opinions. We don’t have to look the same. We don’t have to live the same lifestyles. We don’t have to pray to the same God. But we are made of the same star stuff. Our shell and our beliefs may appear different, but we are not.
It’s high time we realized that.
Namaste 🙏
~jwb~