To the Editor,

 

Red, white and blue fades into yellow: On my way from Greenville to Washington, I turned off (U.S. Highway) 264 and pulled over in front of some woods to make a call. Within 15 minutes, I was surrounded by three Sheriff’s cars. Somebody had called me in as suspicious. Really?! They ran my ID while I made small talk with one of the deputies, then they motored off. I couldn’t imagine who would have called 911 on me. Maybe a young girl in the house not too far away. As I was rolling back to the highway, I pulled over with my window open to talk to the fellows working at (a business on Cherry Lane Road).
“Y’all call them on me?” I asked, almost sarcastically, assuming two solid, blue-collar guys would get a laugh and would have checked on me themselves if they had been suspicious of me.
“Yes, and I’ll call them again if you don’t move along,” said the boss.
I was baffled. It wasn’t just that he was rude to me — that is unfortunate, but not baffling. It is that he was afraid of me. Rude people don’t call cops and waste a chance to be rude in person. Mean jerks make their own threats (they outnumbered me and had tools in hand). But people who are afraid call in armed support.
If rural roughnecks on their own turf feel so insecure they must call the police on curbside cars then no wonder police are showing up everywhere, often on high alert, guns blazing.
We sing that America is the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. For us to be the Land of the Free, men must be brave in their homes. If every stopping car is treated as a threat then we are a nation under siege, sadly, by each other.

 

Paul McNiel

Bath