busy body idiots relent (one in a not frequent enough series)

Common sense prevails:

A subdivision has withdrawn its threat of $25 daily fines against a homeowner who put a Christmas wreath shaped like a peace sign on the front of her home.

Homeowner Lisa Jensen told The Associated Press Monday that the board of directors of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association had apologized, called the incident a misunderstanding and had withdrawn its request for the wreath's removal.

I'm glad Lisa Jensen got her apology, and will be allowed to hang her peace sign from her house this holiday season, but what misunderstanding? This isn't the first time this HOA has gone nuts about a peace sign, and they threatened to fine the homeowner $25 a day, because "three or four" idiots, including the HOA's president, think that the peace symbol is Satanic.

"The peace sign has a lot of negativity associated with it," said Kearns. "It's also an anti-Christ sign. That's how it started."

Wrong again, stupid. It got started because you have nothing better to do than stomp around your little fiefdom and impose your narrow views on everyone who is unfortunate enough to live there under your watchful eye, and your anti-peace sign crusade didn't even begin or end at Lisa Jensen's house!

The committee's former chairman, Jack Lilly, said Kearns had told committee members he was going to have them removed because they didn't think the wreath and another, unrelated peace symbol in the neighborhood should be taken down.

(Emphasis mine.) The more I read about this incident, the more it seems like this is just one man on a mission to eradicate a symbol he personally finds offensive. There was no "misunderstanding," other than the HOA president misunderstanding what is and isn't appropriate use of his limited authority. And apparently, I wasn't the only person who thought it was outrageous:

"We would like to thank everyone who has contacted us with moral support and offers of financial support. We are grateful to hundreds of complete strangers who felt so moved by this story they contacted us," she said.

"It seems whenever someone tries to say 'Peace on Earth' it is met with so much resistance," she said. "The incredible amount of support we have received over the last couple of days really is proof to us of how many people believe in peace and in our right to say it."

Yeah, what exactly do these self-appointed arbitrators of what's acceptable and what isn't have against peace? You know, peace means a whole lot more than "not war."

Comments

[Paul]

Will this apology extend to reinstating the five HOA board members who were fired for exercising common sense?

[Ravenmaster]

For some reason, I don't think they'll be getting their jobs back...

[Wolf of Spoo]

I am SO glad I don't live in the USA. Land of the free and home of the brave indeed.

That said, we in the UK have our own problems with similar busybodies intent on deciding for everyone else what Christmas does and does not mean. Apparently Santa's Grottos are offensive.

[Rev Danger]

Holy crap Wil!

First: five posts in the 24 hours since I stopped by last? Jeez that's awsome.

Second: What the shit is wrong with these people? Satanic? NO. Just no. The opinion article that you link to from the Denver Post is right on the money when it says that this peace symbol was devloped as part of the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. It was devloped by a norwegian farmer and artist who was commissioned by the campaign to create a logo. He said he thought simple, and this represented his hands together, outstreched in a peaceful gesture.

Now we all know. Someone tell this Kearns jackass.

[Kim the fangirl]

I'm glad she gets to keep her peace sign on the house she FRICKEN PAYS FOR! I hate HOAs. Busybodies with nothing better to do than polish their guns and tell people how to live.

I need a little Christmas cheer after reading about this nonsense. Where's the rum?

[DRKellogg]

I would never live any place like that. I'm from the Midwest and I live in the country. We may be tacky out here, but we don't have to put up with jerks trying to impose their view of fashion or morality on us.

[1funchef]

Shalom! 'nough said.

[angie k]

I have a friend who lives in a community w/ an HOA (in a suburb of Austin) and her stories about it make me shudder. I can't say I'm willing to completely shun communities with HOAs but her stories and this insanity really put me off them.

I would just love for them to have to stand up and provide proof for their logic that the peace sign is a slight to people with family in the Iraq war and that it's a Satanic symbol. Honest to goodness, hard-edged proof. Just because I have a hunch they couldn't actually prove it. And that would amuse me.

Ah well, at least logic prevailed. Happy Holidays. :)

[Wil]

You know, if these people really wanted to upset families of soldiers serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, all they'd have to do is give them a copy of the cuts Bush has made to the VA.

Pro-peace does not equal anti-soldier. Anti-war does not equal anti-soldier. Why is it so hard for these fucktards to wrap their tinly little brains around that?

[Jessika]

Actually the peace sign is made from the semaphore code for N and D (Nuclear Disarmament) superimposed and a circle drawn around it. [Not sure about the farmer who was commissioned to design it, and if that's true.]

As for the satanic thing...I used to wear an Ankh ring as a teenager. I had a couple of people tell me it was a satanic symbol. And didn't believe me when I told them it was the Egyptian symbol for life.

[ErkDude]

You want to know what's satanic??

Putting American kids through this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPYmIQXZ-nk

It's time to hand these bible-thumping "fucktards" in the Bush Administration their last paycheck.

[Batou]

For some reason all I can think of when I read this is the definition of "Puritanism" as "The nagging fear that somewhere, someone may be happy".

Maybe that's just me...

[Will]

Offtopic, and I'm sure you've seen this, but a link to this video was posted up on the Woot! blog today, and it features you telling Otis "You a dumb motherfucker" for eating two Keno crayons.

[ErkDude]

There goes my lunch

[tina_anderson]

First, thanks Jessika, I had no clue where the peace-symbol actual came from ^_^. I was waiting for Kearns to start blaming us [Heeb here], when his bid to play the Satanic card actually failed. LOL!

Also, not trying to be a jerk here, this isn’t my blog, but…

Obviously this story is destined for a Lifetime TV flick of the month—it’s got all the typical elements of suburb drama: a nut-sac on a mission against one woman in town who defies him...but the mentality in some of the comments here. 0_o. What? Basically, we're all a bunch a bible-thumping tardates who inflict our views on one another, because this Kearns guy is a doucher [oh wait, an American...oh wait...a doucher…]. Can we stay focused? He's the idiot here, not everyone in America, k? If we were all insane puritanical wingnuts, this wouldn’t have made news, and the pressure to stump this jerk never would’ve transpired.

[bkw]

To be fair, when the guys aid "that's how it started" refers not to the fracas, but to the peace symbol.

There are some people who believe that it's "Nero's Cross," and one or more of the apostles was crucified upside down on it, etc etc etc.

Googling for "nero's cross" comes up with a bunch of urban legends and myths and whatnot.

According to this random page :

It was developed by the British "Committee for Nuclear Disarmament" (CND), apparently about 1958. It is comprised of the two semaphore flag positions for "N" and "D," standing for "nuclear disarmament."

So on the one hand, you have a little man with too much power being very offended that (in his mind) a Satanic symbol is being interwoven with a symbol of Christmas, celebrating his very own personal Lord-and-Saviour's-birth (even though the wreath as as symbol ... oh, nevermind).

The situation is a little more complex than "har har lookit the dumb christianists!" The guy is genuinely offended by his reading of what this person is doing.

That doesn't make him any less wrong in his heavy handed and facist approach to the problem, or his abuse of power.

Anyway.

So, yes. Powerhungry and ignorant people with small minds should never be given power over others. Especially in HOAs.

[BonzoGal]

Oy- what's next? Bet he'd have a foaming fit over a Star of David displayed anywhere...

And even if it WAS "Satanic", or even if someone wanted to display any sort of "Satanic" symbols, how is that any of his business?! Hello, Freedom of Religion? (Which should include freedom FROM religion, thankyouverymuch.)

Sheesh, ai-yah, and oy vey. At least reason finally prevailed.

[bkw]

Ugh. This is what I get for taking more than an hour to write a post. I blame work-related distractions.

Stupid work.

Symbology is powerful. The rise of paganism and various "world culture symbology" throws an entire toolbox in the old-fashioned "christian vs. non-christian (ergo satanic)" world view.

I remember way back when -- a couple decades ago -- of being accused of practicing satanic magic because I was writing in Kanji ...

[bkw]

how is that any of his business

It is the business of the Homeowners Association to preserve and promote the property values of their constituents.

This involves enforcing gardening, decorating, remodeling "guidelines" for anything visible from the street (or worse, if your HOA is particularly noxious).

So if someone is doing something that can be seen as driving down property values, it becomes the business of the HOA.

HOAs are not Federal entities, and as such the entire Freedom of Religion or Speech or whatnot does not apply. When you buy a house, you have to sign the CCRs (Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions) of the HOA -- it's part of the process. If I recall correctly, if you don't agree to the CCRs, the HOA can legally bar you from taking posession of the house.

Yes, it's stupid. Yes, it's lame.

But also : yes, it's optional. You can always buy a house somewhere where there is no HOA. I've seen ads for houses that explicitly state "NO HOA" as a selling point.

Or you can try to take control of your HOA and subvert it to serve your will, so you can be the one abusing the power!

Bwahahahaha.

[MJ]

You know,
Last time I checked being pro-peace meant we WANT our soldiers to come home SAFELY. It means love and support. It means we just want it to end.
And, for the record, anti-christ? HELLOOOOO!!! Not everyone on this planet is Christian! What ever happened to acceptance?

[pat]

OK re: HOA's there was this song in the 60's - Little Boxes - that's your HOA "and there all made out of ticky-tacky and they all look just the same"

[Chuck Steel]

Maybe the HOA President works for Halliburton?

[Jaradel]

um, may I just quietly say that this HOA president who started this whole mess is not representative of ANY Christians that I know, myself included? My husband and I were just as outraged by that HOA president's reaction to a rather tasteful peace-symbol wreath as everyone else here. And speaking of acceptance, it would be nice if people in general would stop lumping all Christians in with the ultra-right-wing Pat Robertson types out there. Most Christians I know just wish to coexist peacefully with our neighbors, regardless of their differing beliefs.

[Soo]

All I have to say is "X-Files."

The episode about the garbage monster conjured up by the HOA prez to eat up anyone who didn't conform I think is just a variation on a theme for every HOA.

[Celtiemom]

Boy, Mr. HOA President must have such a hard time in church on Christmas, all those dreadful scripture passages about Jesus being the "Prince of Peace" and the angels singing "Peace on earth". Just saying.