{"id":1555,"date":"2016-04-24T14:39:22","date_gmt":"2016-04-24T18:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/quakerpagan\/?p=1555"},"modified":"2016-04-24T15:15:15","modified_gmt":"2016-04-24T19:15:15","slug":"dear-sign-thief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/quakerpagan\/2016\/04\/dear-sign-thief.html","title":{"rendered":"Dear Sign Thief"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Dear Thief\u00a0 Who Keeps Stealing My Black Lives Matter Sign,<\/h3>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thank you.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Sign
Sign Number Five Is Ready for Business\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While I realize it was never your intent to encourage me, I want you to know: your efforts have made a real difference to me. \u00a0In the nine months since I first put up a hand-lettered Black Lives Matter sign in front of my house, you have taken or vandalized it five times.<\/p>\n

Now, I know that\u2019s not record breaking: one friend in the area has had her sign stolen or vandalized nine times. \u00a0Still, I want you to know how much your efforts have meant to me.<\/p>\n

When the Peace and Social Concerns Committee of my Quaker meeting took the suggestion that we, too, put up a sign in front of our building, the one reservation that I heard expressed was that the Black Lives Matter movement was \u201cjust on social media.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it is true that without the connections I\u2019ve made through social media, I might still believe that racism was on the ropes, a thing of the past, or at least, little more than a nuisance in the lives of people of color. \u00a0Like you, Thief, I live in a predominantly white area of little country towns, of pickup trucks and church suppers.<\/p>\n

But, most likely unlike you, I have had access over the past two years to the voices of many people of color\u2026 and I\u2019ve been listening as they tell me stories that have ranged from continual small incidents of harassment, through full-blown, life threatening acts of outright bigotry. It turns out that racism isn\u2019t dead\u2013it isn\u2019t even sick. \u00a0And I, at least, might never have grasped that without the help of social media.<\/p>\n

Still, there are limits to what I can do<\/em> through social media. \u00a0And\u00a0it would be easy for me, one middle-aged white lady, working a fifty-hour week, living in a small-town backwater, to feel that my efforts against racism are too small to count.<\/p>\n

It would be easy for me, given the unslowed flood of news stories about racism and my frustrating lack of access to big cities and large protests, to feel that simply talking about racism\u2013wearing a button, putting up a sign\u2013is useless. Is there any point in doing the small things I am able to do?<\/p>\n

You have made sure I know there is, my friend, and for that, I thank you.<\/p>\n

Every sign stolen or vandalized is like a message in a bottle from you. \u00a0I keep telling you that black lives matter\u2026 you keep telling me that you hate hearing that.<\/p>\n

You keep telling me you need<\/em> to keep hearing that: that deep down, you know what I have learned, that in our society, black lives are not given the same value, the same respect as white ones. \u00a0You keep telling me that this message is effective, that it makes you angry and defensive enough to get out of your car or truck in the middle of the night on my high-traffic road, risking a collision, just to communicate with me.<\/p>\n

I hear you, friend.<\/p>\n

Here is what your efforts have won from me:<\/p>\n