Trumpland, MA: On the Red Line

is why I was only half joking about you starting to quote NRA talking points to me Adam.

If everyone's armed, and everyone knows that everyone's armed, a little respect and restraint just might be the outcome.

Trains sometimes sit open and are pretty empty at off hours at Alewife, too.

   
I always fly it proudly in front of my home. I believe in the things it stands for — one nation that should be indivisible. But when I see someone in high, business drag wearing a flag pin on their lapel, the message is not unambiguous.

The reason is because I've seen too many politicians using a flag pin as something to advertise "patriotism", while doing things to divide the nation and hurt veterans — not everyone who wears a flag pin by any means, but enough of them that it can be ambiguous. There's often truth to Samuel Johnson's famous quote about false-patriotism.

So, unfortunately, just wearing a flag pin doesn't send the clear message of liberty and justice that it ought to. I wish it did, I truly do.

If you also feel better about yourself that's great too — but the main reason is to reassure other people. Anyone who would chastise you for wearing safety pins, probably doesn't understand their very simple meaning. So once again:
 

• I don't hate you.
• I don't want to harm you.
• If I see someone else hurting you or your family, I'll try to help.

It's not anti-Clinton, it's not anti-Trump, it's just anti-hate. If anyone objects to that... well, it's good to know where they stand.

Did the chastisers look like you, and have similar life experiences, or were they different? That's the target audience. Pay less attention to online naysayers, see what happens when you try it face-to-face with total strangers in real life!

ill strap a carebear to my chest so people get the same idea

i wonder if i have my old one still in storage somewhere

tenderheart you silly goose

I tried to ignore them and wear mine as long as I could, and actually follow up by helping people and offering support, but so many others I thought would be supportive came out so heavily against them I felt shamed and stopped wearing it.

This is how it is when you do the right thing: sometimes other people, those who should support what you're trying to do, fail to be supportive, and sometimes are actively critical. Sometimes they second-guess your motives and write a big story full of falsehoods about why you're doing what you're doing. As unpleasant and unjust as this is, it's not something you can avoid if you want to do the right thing. Understand your own reasons for doing what you're doing, your own commitment to it (because this is a real commitment, to not turn away from an ugly situation, to become involved and try to make it better by your presence). It is not without risk, which you should understand. It's probably fair to say that many people who put on the safety pin wanted, on some level, to feel better about themselves -- but that's not necessarily a bad thing, if the way that they feel better about themselves is by doing good and becoming better people.

So, I hope you'll think about this. This is going to be a long hard fight. Particularly for young people, whose "activism" up until now may largely consist of celebratory rallies surrounded by like-minded people, facing up to what's coming is going to be a real shock to the system. But I don't think, ultimately, you have much choice. If you're not a person of color or visibly Muslim (or anything that the average ignorant redneck thinks a Muslim looks like) or obviously gay or a member of another targeted group, you have the choice to take the safety pin off and avoid some flak now -- but I do believe eventually, unless you're part of the alt.reich, it's gonna follow you home and end up on your doorstep. I won't tell you to grow a thicker skin, but I will tell you to take heart, and think about what your choices really are.

Sure thing!

Then again, I'm trailer trash born to ethnic rednecks. "Redneck" isn't exactly considered to be a pejorative where I come from. Shit, an urban born younger relative aspires to be one in a sort of "hick hop" kind of way, which I find sort of amusing.