Over the past week, I have noticed a medium-large Obama for President sign in front of a house just about a mile from the Amboy Market.
The first time I saw it, I raised my eyebrows; I didn't think there were anything but die-hard Republicans in and around Amboy. Certainly the opposition keeps a fairly low profile in general.
The fact that I'm writing about "the one" Obama sign in Amboy, says a lot.
The next time I saw the sign. I noticed someone had overlaid a hand-written message on cardboard over one side of the Obama sign: "Not In Amboy!"
When I came home from work that day, the overlay had been removed and a new hand-written message attached above the sign: "Only cowards deface signs!"
This morning, when I drove by the sign, it looked like it had been cut in half, though it was still standing. This afternoon, it looked whole. Maybe I imagined the cut?
Seeing the evidence of this conflict play out fills me with varying surges of emotion: anger, of course, that there are numbskulls out there who can't live and let live; pity for the person having to deal with the vandalism and all the nasty connotations entailed therein; pride in the person standing up for his/her right to post a political sign like any American should be able to; sadness, that we live in a world that still contains these types of struggles.
Ultimately, I'm reminded of the importance of taking the high road. I've fantasized many times about removing or vandalizing the sign of some candidate who I strongly opposed, though I've never acted on that fantasy. Now I know I never will.
I have contemplated this little drama and have felt the echoes of the struggles endured by other people in other places. And in that contemplation, my thoughts have turned to luminaries like Dr. Martin Luther King and his beautiful message of peaceful protest. The truth of his message is as irresistible as gravity. Here's to hoping this saboteur in Amboy will come down from orbit and join the rest of us who are peacefully expressing our views.
