Just ask Frosty, the fellow with the broomstick in his hand. Or maybe Olaf from some of his drippier scenes in the movie āFrozen.ā A snowman is an ephemeral thing. One day youāre all smiles, buttons, bits of coal and stick arms, the next youāre a puddle. One just doesnāt expect the same short life cycle from snowmen made of wooden spools and white paint. But then perhaps youāve never been to Catonsville.
In case anyone missed it, the western suburb ā once home to the Piscataway Indians and later famous for its grand Victorians, the presence of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and, perhaps more tellingly, the nationās second oldest continuously operated psychiatric hospital ā had a little snowman trouble this season. Oh, it started out innocently enough. Donāt snowmen always? But then it got a little rough. Someone had the gall to post the following message on one of 11 wooden snowmen lined up as part of a fundraising display: āNo Hate in 21228.ā
What happened next? To quote Olaf: āOh, look at that. Iāve been impaled.ā
Naturally, not only did the offending ā if thatās the correct word under these surreal circumstances ā snowman have to come down, they all came down. But as if that werenāt enough, Catonsvilleās Fourth of July Committee, which had sanctioned the snowmen as a fundraiser for their popular summer parade, returned all the $250 donations from local businesses. It was as if the snowmen never existed in the first place.
The reasoning ā again, if thatās the correct word for such unthinking behavior ā behind the removal was that the slogan on the āno hateā snowman (nicknamed āSnookiā) was deemed too political by some angry Catonsvillians. Not that āhateā was political exactly, or Catonsvilleās ZIP code of 21228 was political, but it was the context in which the two had been put together before. Last summer, it was the slogan that emerged as local residents protested the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. You may recall that march as the one that President Donald Trump later claimed had attracted āsome very fine people on both sides.ā
Get it? Someone thought this was a subtle dig at President Trump or perhaps his white nationalistic sympathies. In any event, it was perceived as a white-hot scandal. The snowmen had to come down from the Knights of Columbus Patapsco Council property on Frederick Road.
The irony here is that the organizers did make an inadvertent political statement; it just isnāt the one they were so worried about. By removing the snowmen because one advertised against hate (and perhaps because he held aloft a rainbow of gingerbread men might even have been seen as inclusive ā horrors), organizers signaled to their neighbors their own toleration of hate and white supremacy.
Listen, we get that political speech has gotten ugly in some quarters, but this wasnāt an example of that. If we canāt tolerate the most loving and warm-hearted of messages in the holiday season because it might be construed as political ā maybe, barely ā then when exactly is it OK to be against hate? Catonsvilleās snowmen are the counterpoint to Roland Parkās signs that claim āall are welcome here,ā only even less overtly political. The Roland Park signs were protected by the First Amendment, and so would Snooki have been had the sponsors had the gumption to stand by their snowman.
If political discourse in this country has gotten over-heated and coarsened, one reason may be that weāve pushed it into the margins. What hope is there for civil politics if the only time thereās any public conversation about issues is at extremist rallies or amen-corner websites, talk-radio shows or cable TV venues where point of view is as frozen as Snookiās heart and where those with whom we disagree are considered the devil. We shouldnāt fear free speech so much as we should fear silence and authoritarian control. The antidote to speech with which you disagree is more speech, not less.
Still, itās nice to see that many in Catonsville are still anti-hate. The message can still be found in places like Karen Stysleyās yard where her own version of Snooki endorses āLove, not hate in 21228.ā Who knew in 2017 that would be an even remotely controversial point of view?