Friday, June 13, 2008

An open letter to the un-American coward who stole our Obama sign

Some time during the night of June 10, you stole the Obama sign from our front yard. It's a small matter, and we'll replace it easily enough. But your action signifies something much larger.

I have no idea what your politics are, although it's reasonable to assume that you oppose Barack Obama becoming president. What's important, though, is that I imagine you consider yourself a patriot and that when you stole our sign, you thought you were acting in the interests of our country.

I invite you to think about that.

Dictatorships of both the left and the right commonly have in place almost all the machinery of democracy -- parliaments, congresses, prime ministers, presidents, elections, vote counting, inaugurations. The crucial item that is always missing is a political opposition with the freedom to campaign. You have just declared that that's what you want for America.

Is that the act of a patriotic American, of a believer in democracy? If you want to suppress those who differ from you politically, then at least be honest with yourself: never stand during the Pledge of Allegiance, never salute the flag, never celebrate the Fourth of July, never call yourself a patriot, never praise the Founding Fathers. Above all, never claim to support democracy or to believe in the idea of America that inspired so many before you.

8 comments:

Travis Erwin said...

Thievery is thievery regardless of the motivation.

David said...

Good point. Also trespass, in this case.

Daniel Dvorkin said...

They'd have burned a cross on the lawn, but that would have taken some courage.

A Paperback Writer said...

Someone stole your Obama sign? Whoa. And you don't even live in Utah. Of course, if you lived here and had "nice" neighbors, they'd either just 1) refuse to speak with you or 2) drop hints to get their kids to steal the sign.
Personally, I was rather Pro-Hillary, but I'm fine with Obama. I think he'd be a good president. And McCain is more W than W is-- scary stuff.
But it doesn't matter much what I think because I live in the reddest state in the union and it will vote Republican no matter what I do.

Thanks for visiting my blog.
I just read over you list of published stuff and I am impressed. Very nice little list there.
Me? Let's see: I've published a couple of dozen poems and one short story. That's it. Total.

David said...

paperback writer,

Most of our neighbors are fairly liberalish, Democratish -- or at least, very anti-Bush. There's a jerk a couple of doors down, though, who could be the culprit.

I've visited your blog before and even left a comment occasionally. I read blogs far more than I tend to comment, though.

A Paperback Writer said...

Yes, I've seen you around before -- often on alternatefish/1001 monkeys.
But thanks for leaving a comment.

Kristen said...

On the positive side of possible explanations, maybe the person really loves Obama and wanted a sign for his own lawn, but couldn't afford one.

David said...

Hmm. Maybe in the future, Obama signs will go for big currency units on ebay.com.earth, ebay.com.mars, etc., and he's just getting ready.