Events at the Triangle, and in the world
Dear neighbors,
I’m so sorry. I sincerely regret my attempt to share the Easter insight that came to me on Good Friday eve; a conceptually powerful visual synergy linking neighborhood outcry over the unexpected slaughter of 9 trees at the Woods Road Triangle, which many in Snedens found profoundly upsetting, to deafening silence in some quarters regarding the ongoing, unprecedented, and indiscriminate slaughter of the pillars of federal infrastructure. (The signs were rapidly removed, so if you missed it, this will have to do: video (https://photos.app.goo.gl/493PBzE7JD8C1x3k6 – and if you weren’t one of the outraged, you can stop here: the rest isn’t meant for you.)
I did not intend to scare anyone, and I regret that some neighbors were alarmed; it never occurred to me that suspicions might jump right to ‘foreign agitators have entered my safe space,’ rather than instantly grasping – or at least trying to comprehend – the visual allegory. That certainly says something about the climate in Snedens, and perhaps America. My simple (and transient) visual message provoked agitation from people I rarely see outside of the lower landing – at least three of whom who were so upset by the acronyms of our knee-capped public institutions, that they were apparently compelled to rush out, one after another, to “disappear” the signs, to save themselves and 
others from the horrifying experience. One resident angrily accosted an interested bystander. One even beseeched for the signs to be placed on our property, out of sight, where the only people to offend would be friends, immediate neighbors, and trespassers (as I’m sure everyone in the landing knows, our road is not and never has been public, as it’s made up of easements that run with the parcels – if we’re getting technical).
The extent and depth of these reactions would be laughable if it weren’t so disturbing. I am so deeply saddened and discouraged to realize that much of the community where 3 generations of my family have grown up, a community where many marched against the Vietnam War or for Civil Rights, is now so isolated from normal life and civic engagement, from even its fellow inhabitants, that panic and rage were the overt reactions to encountering placards with endangered government agencies’ initials on them. The desperation to remove any reminder of the divisions outside our door, to preserve dysfunctional social fictions that now drive community cohesion, is a hard thing to see in broad daylight, particularly through the lens of history.
While what’s left of our independent press is threatened at the national level, some neighbors clearly can’t tolerate even a moment’s upsetting of the local facade. In their “idyllic” hamlet, there must be noreminder of the disorder and collapse going on outside. Though I’m sure it’s tinted by memory, the Snedens I grew up in was both messier and more genuine. There were no fences, and we could talk about difficult issues. Morality and Politics seemed distinct and separable. Now? Andy Norman must be spinning in his grave. Snedens tolerates no social airing of the disappearance of a house cleaner or nanny who’s no longer in the country, or the sudden scarcity of landscapers, or the loss of that foreign student who was tutoring your grandson. Certainly not until the imaginary gates are actually crashed: by ICE, the thought police, or a pandemic we didn’t prepare for because malicious, avaricious clowns are running our public health and research institutions. Until then we must keep things “civilized.”
America is terrifying right now, and I regret that people were further frightened by this local moment. But if vigilante censorship is one’s immediate reaction to a hint of unpleasant reality, some here may be ill-prepared for the America of our future. Then again, some residents may really love it. Ultimately I don’t think wealth and location will protect anyone from all that’s coming. And at some point, equivocating or staying silent to protect others’ tender sensibilities will also have a price; remind yourself how the term “quisling” came into use.
Addendum (because life marches on while thoughts coalesce):
We have new laws against Christian bias: I have been made aware that some Christians are uncomfortable with the traditional displaying of Halloween skeletons and supernatural phenomena, so I trust that no such displays will appear at our Woods Road triangle going forward. Especially now that J.D. Vance seems to have killed the Pope. 5K runs are apparently still neutral. And Ivy League Universities are suddenly a lot easier to get into – for as long as they last!