Why yes, thanks for asking, we had a fine Halloween!
OK, we couldn't get the usual bulk candy in the last few days, so we were stuck with one bowl of snacks. OK, we're not into decorations (though saw some outstanding ones elsewhere).
OK, so our brats are too old to have wandered around outside.
OK, so we did not make time to get some punching bags pumpkins up front.
But well before sunset, people came.
First were the young ones, with young adult parents, strollers, and ridiculous covid masks on the little kids. A couple of them were scared off by the No More Lockdowns yard signs: we heard the adults declaring us dirty and/or unwelcoming, pulling their kids back and moving on. Others came up happily and got their candy.
Then came older ones, and kept coming a good hour or two after sunset. Not a visible care about covid. They knocked, they said hi, we gave them loot. At some point, we realized that we can be foley-artists too, making moans and noises into the security system's outdoor speakers. We had as much fun as they did.
Hey fren, are you a good person? Of course you are, and we both know it. But how will others find out? We can't just tell them. You also can't just visibly do good things all the time. Who has time for that? So instead, we can DISPLAY. Let people plainly see how good you are, from a safe distance. There are so many options!
- display colors of other activists
- display facebook avatar frames
- display orange shirts
- display vaccination counts
- display any "XYZ matters" slogan
- display other shirts
- display pronouns
- display any "save the XYZ" slogan
- display ribbons on clothing
- display childish artwork about any cause
- display ribbons on trees
- display masks unnecessarily
To be a proper act of display, it must not call for any particular action. After all, your audience would have to contemplate doing something, and that involves thinking. But we don't want to risk people thinking and coming to different conclusions. We just want them to feel that you're a socially acceptable person. So these are bad examples: avoid avoid avoid!
- don't display election signs like "elect XYZ"
- don't display action slogans like "stop burning oil"
- don't display any controversial symbol outside the Overton Window