What a difference a year makes.
In 2005, the outrage story of the season involved clerks at discount stores wishing customers “Happy Holidays.” Apparently to millions of shoppers – particularly those who listen to right-wing talk radio – a Happy Holidays greeting was considered an insult.
Retailers responded immediately, plastering Santas everywhere and hiding the menorahs for fear of engendering the unholy wrath of the likes of Bill O’Reilly.
This year, the controversy is over peace.
I’m relieved to report that it appears most Americans are for it.
It all started last week in the upscale Loma Linda subdivision outside sleepy Pagosa Springs when Lisa Jensen and her husband, Bill Trimarco, hung a homemade wreath in the shape of a peace symbol on the side of their house.
The president of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association went nuts.
“Loma Linda residents are offended by the peace sign displayed on the front of your house,” he said in a letter the couple received Nov. 21. “This board will not allow any signs, flags, etc. that can be considered divisive.”
If the wreath was not removed by Friday, the letter said, Jensen and Trimarco would be fined $25 a day until it came down. It was signed by Bob Kearns, board president, and the rest of the board.
Jensen, who works for an insurance company and until now has never been confused with Abbie Hoffman, refused.
“We do have covenants here,” said Jensen, a past president of the homeowners association. “Signs, advertisements, billboards – those kinds of things – require approval by the association. But not Christmas decorations.”
Kearns, who has taken deep cover since the firestorm over his letter erupted on Monday, told the Associated Press that he perceived the wreath to be a political statement, and apparently he thinks political statements are forbidden in Loma Linda. “Some people have kids in Iraq, and they are sensitive,” he said.
But Jensen and Trimarco, who have refused to remove the wreath with its red bow and holiday lighting, have been inundated with support for their display precisely because of its religious, spiritual, cultural – and political – message.
“At home, I’m getting about 20 calls an hour on my voice mail,” said Jensen, who was struggling to get something done at work Monday. She’s inundated with e-mail from across the continent as well.
People have offered to pay the fine. They’ve vowed to hang their own peace-symbol wreaths in solidarity. They are encouraging Jensen and Trimarco to stand firm.
“A lot of the calls are from military families saying they have sons or daughters in the war and they still want peace,” she said. “Some people call practically in tears to say they’d fought in wars for freedom and liberty, and nobody could take our freedom of speech away.”
Calls are flooding the lines at the city of Pagosa Springs and the local chamber of commerce too.
“They’ve all been pro-peace symbol,” said Mark Garcia, town manager. “I haven’t heard of any in support of the
homeowners association.”
Garcia was quick to explain that the Loma Linda subdivision is in unincorporated Archuleta County, so the city has no jurisdiction over the area. “We support the peace display,” he said.
Even in Loma Linda, support for Jensen and Trimarco is solid.
The five members of the architectural control committee resigned over Kearns’ order that the wreath be removed. It all smacked of totalitarianism to them.
Loma Linda residents “are aghast,” said Jack Lilly, former chairman of the architectural control committee. “Everyone who has called me has said, ‘I can’t believe this is happening.”‘
Jensen can’t either and said she has no intention of paying the fine.
The message of the wreath is not just a political statement. “We consider it a much broader issue, more like a way of life,” she said.
I think she’s on to something.
Diane Carman’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. She can be reached at 303-954-1489 or dcarman@ denverpost.com.
