The 250 Square Foot View

In the span of a week, my community has let me down. Twice.

Riding my bike over the highway overpass with my son, I noticed county workers removing two colorful “signs” made from ribbon in the fencing of the overpass. Each said, “BLM” with a heart next to them.

A few days later, we received a “reminder” email from our community board about the neighborhood sign policy, including a request to remove our lawn sign which states, “Black Lives Matter, Love is Love, Science is Real,” and other phrases meant to show our support for, I suppose, “progressive” ideas.

In both cases, the reason given was “the rules.”

The county, they explained to me via email, can’t discriminate between a “Trump 2020” sign and a “BLM (with a heart)” sign, so both would have to be removed to preserve “content neutrality.”

The community pointed to its “no signs” policy, meant to avoid discord between neighbors.

While I understand the letter of these rules, it feels like they’re being applied against their own spirit. When those rules were written, were they intended to prevent someone from stating that a particular group of Americans’ lives mattered?

I replied to the county that I understood the policy, but disagreed with the idea that a political sign and a BLM were the same and/or indistinguishable. I would argue the same to my community board; a BLM sign (or one that supports love or science) should not be taken as a political statement.

A recent poll found that 67% of Americans supported Black Lives Matter. When do 67% of Americans agree on anything these days? I would bet that figure is similar (if not higher) in my county, and my community.

When most people within a community agree with something, isn’t it up to the leaders and institutions within that community to make sure those beliefs are reflected in its policies? Isn’t that literally what voting is?

A few weeks before the BLM signs were taken down, someone had put up a number of signs on that same overpass. One suggested Trump was “appointed by God.” Others delved into conspiracy theories around Prince and Marilyn Monroe’s deaths. Did I want these signs taken down immediately? Of course I did.

If you’d like to make the argument that a sign that states a certain group of Americans matters is indistinguishable from those signs, I’d love to see it in the comments.