Hopefully our children don’t understand the hate Trump, his supporters represent
Though seeing Trump signs around Hopwood and Uniontown continue to confuse, sadden, and sometimes enrage me, I understand that this act is one of the last democratic norms we still have intact this election cycle-the ability to celebrate and pridefully display your candidate of choice on your house, in your yard, on your flag pole, or on your car near and during an election year.
What has become increasingly unacceptable to me, however, are the aggressive Trump banners that hang 100 yards from Hutchinson Elementary School. The first one, displayed in big white letters, exclaimed “Trump 2020: No more bull****” For too many kids, this was one of the things they saw on their first day back to school.
The sign was later replaced with a new one that reads “Trump 2020: Make liberals cry again.” This means, by day two of what is already considered a difficult school year, children have both read foul language and been exposed to their first example of bullying for the year.
Even after seeing the lack of leadership and morals unfold on 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, admittedly, I still expected more from my local community leaders. When did this language become appropriate? When did it become something to be proud of and display on a busy road that leads to an elementary school? I was disturbed to find that these signs somehow slipped under the radar of our township supervisor, and even more appalled to learn it was placed there by the supervisor himself! When did we deem this acceptable behavior from a local elected official? Quite frankly, it is shameful, ugly, and petty behavior that I’d rather we not expose children to on their way to school.
With the usual Trump yard signs, I am, at the very least, consoled by the fact that when passing one on their ride to school, children can’t pick up on the nuance behind the sign. Thankfully, they don’t have to know that the homeowners touting the sign decided that electing a president who is racist, sexist, and homophobic isn’t a deal breaker for them.
Thankfully, the kids don’t know it means that the residents support a candidate who doesn’t believe in science and who actively incites violence. Thankfully, they don’t know it means their neighbors support a candidate who has attempted to dismantle one of our oldest institutions, who has told over 20,000 lies to the American public, and who is, quite simply, a textbook demagogue making a mockery of the United States and leading us down the dangerous path that is fascism. They don’t have to know these things about what the signs actually represent, and for that I am grateful. But even though they can’t see the bigotry, they can still see the bullying and curse words. And after all that these children have gone through this year alone, can we not all agree to protect them from that?
To be clear, I am by no stretch of the imagination saying this is the worst thing to affect children from the Trump presidency and the 2020 election. We quite empirically know that’s untrue, as we have: Betsy DeVos in charge of education, resulting in the most negligent, embarrassing, and inept response to the reopening of schools during an uncontrolled pandemic; the physical, psychological, and irreparable damage done to the children held in literal cages at the border, terrified and separated from their families; and we have elected leaders bought and controlled by the NRA, who have made it so Americans find the slaughter of children attending schools an acceptable byproduct of the Second Amendment — all of which are in the running for that. I am merely saying that this is one tangible example of a norm I am not willing to let go uncontested.
Though there are myriad of disturbing factors that led to the state of our nation today, one factor that is actively contributing to it is how we’ve allowed for the dereliction of our norms to go unchallenged. As a nation, we have become increasingly desensitized to the crumbling of our democracy and our standards right below our very feet. We have been fueled by both fear and hatred, which has led us to put our morals on the back-burner. I think we need to take a step back and ask ourselves — “Is this really who we want to be?”
None of this is to mention, the “bull****” this house on Hopwood Fairchance Rd so emphatically wants no more of, is happening UNDER a Trump presidency. Please vote Biden/Harris on November 3. Our institutions, sanity, futures, and children depend on it.
Torey Siebart
Uniontown