At least one unknown vandal in her sixties has been caught in the act of painting the rainbow bench in red. She ran to her red compact car and took off. The bench was subsequently painted rainbow by more volunteers, then attacked by the vandal(s) again, and so on. The church has plenty of paint and volunteers. Love will win over hate.
UCC administrator Mark C. Harris explained in a post to the church blog that the benches were painted rainbow this summer by volunteers and that they represent that, “We want everyone to feel welcome to use the park. This is in good keeping with our belief that all of God’s children are beloved, no matter who they are, or where they are on life’s journey. All are welcome, no matter their gender, age, race, ethnicity, economic status, sexual orientation, difference in abilities, religion or absence thereof.”
Speculation abounds as to the motivation of the vandal(s) – it’s easy to jump to a conclusion and say it’s someone with an anti-gay sentiment, but longtime readers of this blog will also recall the controversy back in 2009 when local entrepreneur Dorrie O’Meara launched her Mexican restaurant Pedraza’s. Some people around town were upset because O’Meara painted her building yellow! Certain grumpy people in this area seem to hate colors besides brick red and gray.
Take this, vandals!
Cornell said in an interview for Free Keene that he thinks the first time the the vandal(s) struck, the benches were fully painted red, but that since then the vandal(s) have only painted over the yellow part. He’s losing track of the amount of times the benches have been vandalized, but thinks it may have been at least six times, all since the beginning of August.
Smart move on the UCC’s part to make this into a hopefully-viral phenomenon. The vandals, whatever the hate they carry in their hearts, probably weren’t expecting these benches to turn into a movement!
The Shire Free Church is joining in solidarity with the UCC and all those who support love over hate, so I went out with Renee Kate and Jazzy the Studio Dog for a photo shoot this afternoon. Remember to tag your bench selfies with #onthebench on your social media posts.
There’s a new page on facebook called “Save NH – Keene Hates Heroin“. Surely the group’s creators have the best of intentions, but hate only hurts the hater. It won’t hurt heroin. Only love will solve the heroin problem. These folks should reconsider their beliefs.
Ending the war on drugs is a good first step to removing a major barrier (fear of arrest) to addicts getting help. Let’s start by treating addicts with compassion. Hatred is not helping.
Independent local newsman Jared Goodell has become the default fill-in personality for Dan Mitchell, the morning show host on longtime local talk station WKBK. On one of his recent fill-ins, he had me on for the 9am hour and it was lots of fun. I always enjoy the challenging questions from the WKBK callers. We covered the Free State Project, being hated, antics, chalking, the Phat Stuff raid, people’s opinions, school outreach, Robin Hooding, and taxes. Jared’s an excellent interviewer – he’s not afraid to ask tough questions. Here’s the full interview, with callers:
In December of 2014, Keene Copblock‘s JP Freeman took Matt “Boston Strong” Schmidt to court after Boston drove by JP’s house on multiple occasions blaring his horn at all hours. After a short hearing, superior court judge John C. Kissinger issued an order with an agreement from both men that they would not have contact with one another and further, Boston agreed to not honk or blare his horn in the neighborhood after 4pm.
Within days, Boston was back an honking his horn again after 4pm and then in April, after blaring his horn he approached JP and threatened to “rap his head in with a ratchet”. JP then filed a motion for contempt and a hearing was held on May 29th. Here’s the video from that hearing, to which Boston Strong did not attend:
Afterwards, Kissinger issued a stronger no contact order (click to see that order and Boston’s court filings in that timeframe), telling Boston to say 100 feet away from JP unless Boston was on his own property. Then, in the final week of June, JP alleges that Boston purposefully showed up along with other members of a local hate group at JP’s custody hearing at Keene’s family court. JP claims Boston was removed from the court as it was a clear violation of the court order. He subsequently filed another motion for contempt, and a hearing was granted for July 10th at 9am. Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest.
One man’s trash • Ji is free! • All drink and no food • Turn that fire down • The bellamy salute and some pesky kid who won’t stand for the pledge • Activists head back to school • VT cop gets snickerdoodled • Local sheep segregating by color? • Darryl, Shaunna, Tim, and Rapsher join • Show notes at: BlackSheepRising.org
For the fourth year, a peace contingent has marched at the end of the Memorial Day parade in downtown Keene – this year with record participation! Three liberty-friendly families came out to participate, including Free State Project early movers. As with previous years, reception was mostly warm with plenty of waves, smiles, and thank yous. Of course, there was the requisite heckler and a few snide comments – one woman told her kids “don’t even look at them”, and turned around and walked away!
Multiple peace flags were carried and worn and signage included memorials to a father and grandfather and “Stop the US War Machine”. Thanks to all the participants and see you next year!
