Monty Python<\/em> would say \u201cright out\u201d!<\/p>\n\n\n\nOur dogs are still asleep \u2013 if someone was shouting outside the dogs should be up and barking. But there was our yellow lab\u2019s head was still tucked in beside mine, and I could hear our older shepherd\/collie mix gently snoring on the floor on my side of the bed. The other two are quiet in the family room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I got up and went to the front window. I pulled up the heavy blind, and there they were \u2013 my friends marching in the street outside of the house. They had signs, and a bullhorn, yelling about not supporting their causes and betraying \u201cOur Values\u201d. I thought \u2013 \u201cThey are standing in my yard, they can\u2019t do that. And there\u2019s no sidewalk, so they\u2019ll have to block the street to do continue their \u2018protest\u2019\u201d. That\u2019s got to be illegal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Legal Protest<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
One next door neighbor was out, talking to the marchers. He offered them his yard to \u201clegalize\u201d the demonstration. But they said no, it wouldn\u2019t work. Our camper blocked the view of the house. Good thing they came this morning \u2013 I hope that today we\u2019ll sell the camper. It might not be here to serve as a blockade tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I\u2019d better call the prospective buyer. Can\u2019t have him drive three hours to check a camper in the middle of a protest. We\u2019ve been trying to sell the camper for more than a month, and now this protest is going to scuttle the sale. Damn, that was going to be a cash deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So maybe I need to call for help. I need the authorities. But who could I call, the police? They were on the protest line as well, in uniform with a police dog! Fat chance that they would \u201cbreak up\u201d the demonstration. Maybe the Sheriff\u2019s Department, but they were marching too, wearing their black and gray, pacing up and down my street. Guess there\u2019s no help there either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It would be easy to shut the blinds, lock the doors, and turn up the music to try to drown them out. But these were my friends, out there, shouting and demanding that we leave. So I took one of the red folding chairs from the garage, and sat in the middle of the front yard. If they were going to yell at us, well, here I am. Yell at me. It was just what we used to do when the Pataskala Parade came down our street \u2013 then it was a \u201cfront row\u201d view of all of the horses. Now, it was to this spectacle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being Neighborly<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
And then I had an even better idea. I went and got a long white table from the storage shed in the back. I was going to go to Kroger\u2019s and buy cookies, but there wasn\u2019t a way to get out of the driveway to go anywhere. A big black SUV, like a Secret Service car, blocked the end. So I quickly (really quickly) made cookies in the kitchen. They were done and cooled almost instantly, and I found a case of water in the garage (when did we buy that?). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I went to the end of the driveway, beside the SUV. And I set up the table, offering plates of cookies and bottles of water to the protestors, like I was a water stop on a road race. It seemed like the \u201cneighborly\u201d thing to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then the Sheriff\u2019s Deputies came up and arrested me \u2013 handcuffing me against the Black SUV. It was against the law to feed or give water to protestors in the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Someone jumped on me \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just Light<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
And I woke up to our younger rescue dog, the only female. It was a little after six on Sunday morning \u2013 and time for her to go out, and patrol the back yard. Her morning ritual is to jump up on the bed and demand a morning snuggle as her first duty of the day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was all a dream. There was no shouting outside, no picket line in the street. Just the cold early light of an April morning, and the dreams of someone who has spent time thinking about our world today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My wife and I have talked a lot about it \u2013 and how different our views are than those around us. Our neighbors, friends and town has been pretty \u201ctolerant\u201d of having an \u201copenly liberal\u201d family here. With only a couple exceptions, we made it through two Presidential campaigns without incidence. But Biden\u2019s election didn\u2019t seem to \u201cmake things better\u201d as far as the neighborhood is concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s like some have just \u201cdug in\u201d in their views even more than before. It\u2019s not just the stubborn \u201cTrump for America\u201d signs that still \u201cgrace\u201d several yards. And it\u2019s not even the \u201cF##K BIDEN\u201d banner that hangs from a suburban front porch nearby. It feels like conversations that we could have, even before the election, are no longer possible The \u201cchat on the street\u201d or the offer to \u201cwander down for a beer\u201d no longer occurs. It all feels wrapped in an aura of betrayal \u2013 \u201chow could you believe that\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But we do \u2013 and we try not to put our views too much in our neighbors\u2019 \u201cfaces\u201d. That is, other than the Biden signs during the election \u2013 still stored in the garage. One fell on my head yesterday. Maybe it takes getting hit on the head to discover what I\u2019m really worried about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The dogs don\u2019t go back to bed in the morning. And as my Mom would say \u2013 \u201cno rest for the weary\u201d. Or was it”no rest for the wicked?” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So here\u2019s my Sunday story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pre-Dawn I woke up to shouting outside. It was 5:30 on Sunday morning, still dark in April, and I could just make out the yelling, but not the actual words. Who is shouting before dawn on a Sunday? It\u2019s against all the neighborhood \u201cnorms\u201d. Don\u2019t cut your grass before 9am on Saturday, or 10am on Sunday. We\u2019re a working neighborhood, … Continue reading “No Rest for the Wicked”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nNo Rest for the Wicked : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This isn't the Sunday story I planned to tell today - but it's all true! 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