Signs of Decline

 

W

ell, it's happened again. Someone has stolen the Biden-Harris sign I put at the foot of my driveway just two days ago, right after the one before that was stolen. Now I will need to go back down to the Democratic HQ on the square and get yet another sign, so I can be sure to display it proudly on Election Day. the sign itself, made of plastic and cheap metal, meant little to me; but my freedom to express myself to other Americans -- true Americans who value both their own freedom of speech and that of people who disagree with them -- matters a great deal.

Assuming that it is the same person who has stolen both signs, it must be someone who regularly comes by this corner (6145 N. County Rd. 1400E), and this saddens me. Before Trump, I feel sure, I never had neighbors who would have harassed me, stolen my property, or tried to take away my rights. Now it seems I do. The President's gangster behavior has persuaded many people that thuggishness is clever and funny and even somehow admirable. His constant divisiveness takes its toll, his example trickles down, and here we are: former neighbors no longer able to trust one another in the most basic ways. How quickly this has happened is amazing and quite frightening. What will next year bring to this formerly peaceful neighborhood, drive-by shootings?

Friend, if you plan to come by again, thinking it would be truly hilarious to steal all three signs, let me try to advise you what a bad long-term investment that would be. Without knowing anything about you, I'm enough of an optimist to think that one day you will be properly ashamed of your current escapades. I'm pushing seventy these days, with time to reminisce as old men do. I can tell you on good authority that any memory of having been a jerk -- a truly low-down inconsiderate self-centered stupid cowardly jerk -- is no damn fun over the long haul. In old age your worst moments tend to come back and hurt worse than arthritis or a toothache. You might be able to spare yourself some bad times, years or decades from now, just by staying home tomorrow night and leaving my sign alone.

And if anyone else would like to support me in this minor ordeal, striking a little blow for the freedom to speak one's piece free of harassment, that's easy. Just go to the Democratic HQ on the Charleston square, tomorrow from 4:30 to seven, and get a Biden-Harris sign. Heck, get three or four, there's no use saving them past Tuesday. Display them proudly all over your yard until the counting's done. Have a great Election Day, and God Bless America.