Give Peace a chance

A Colorado Homeowners Association is levying a fine against a woman who had the audacity to hang a wreath in the shape of peace symbol on her house. Ahhh, let the Christmas Season begin.

I have to say, looking at the picture, I don't see any kind of hard core, anti-troop message in it, and it's not even particularly political. I suppose "peace" is anti-war, but isn't the goal of every war...peace? I mean, no one wants war forever. But since I don't live there, it's not really worth anyone's time for me to go into any real discussion on the merits of the fine. I don't live in a little deed restricted sub-country so I can hang whatever I want from my door.

I do want to highlight the passage that says "some" residents have kids in Iraq, and "some" residents think the peace symbol is satanic (somebody read the Da Vinci code), for a grand total of "three or four" complaints out of a population of 200 homes. Wow, what a groundswell of outrage! Why, I bet it's hard to walk the street of the subdivision with all that protest. I'm sorry but this falls into the "some guy said it was satanic" category.

But at the end of the day, it's hard for me to get too worked up about Mrs. Jensen's plight. I assume she read the terms of the homeowners agreement before she bought, and I assume she knows the rules as she is a former president of the association. I get that this is beyond petty (and frankly stuuuupid), but rules is rules. If people want to live in little deed restricted neighborhoods, that's their beeswax, but this is the result. If people want to sign over control to their houses to random petty dictators who fire committees that don't rule their way, that's all them. I don't get it, never have, and don't think I ever will. I assume Mrs. Jensen will make a stink, and Mr. Kearns will have to defend his actions but I don't know how this will turn out. Hyperbole alert...when you surrender your rights, you open yourself up to the whims of idiots, and idiots are everywhere. Is that worth the potential for an extra boost in home value? Clearly Mrs. Jensen thinks so, or at least thought so.

Finally, when people talk about the "War on Christmas," I wonder how this fits in? If the Christmas refrain, "peace on earth, goodwill towards men" is offensive, isn't that a harder blow to Christmas than "Happy Holidays?"