Take America Forward

To the editor:

This election season, some people have put up slogan signs without fully considering that they reflect a disregard for community harmony. It is good to put up signs when you really believe in a political candidate’s character, policies, and sense of service for the greater good. Political signs ideally just have the names of candidates, but when a sign has a mean-spirited slogan, it reflects a mean-spirited attitude toward your fellow Americans. Why would anyone want to “Take America Back,” when we are always all Americans together in an ever-forward looking America, no matter our choice of party. We have always gone back and forth between electing presidents of each party. Each party is disappointed when their candidate does not get elected, and then sets out to persuade more people to vote their party in the next election; persuasion through positive plans, a positive sense of all Americans together, in a better future.

Close to the end of the last election, we reluctantly put up a large Biden banner on our front porch. We did this because it was so alienating to hear that our quiet little street was being called “Trump alley,” for all the flags and signs put up by mostly absent Houston weekenders. Our sense of harmony in a quiet community was so disrupted that we felt the need to remind our neighbors that not everyone shares the same views. It also pained me to think of my veteran father rolling over in his grave if he knew that people more prominently displayed a different flag than the one he fought for.

Promoting the idea that we are not one amazing country of people who aspire to get along peacefully, is misguided – and I hope anyone who has a political sign with a mean-spirited slogan will consider putting up a simple sign with just your candidates name.

Kathleen McShane Bolton Fayetteville