All They Are Saying....

OK, Blue Tuesday was great news and all, but here's a nice sign that the country is getting its head straight again:

Last week, a couple were threatened with fines of $25 a day by their homeowners’ association unless they removed a four-foot wreath shaped like a peace symbol from the front of their house.

The fines have been dropped, and the three-member board of the association has resigned, according to an e-mail message sent to residents on Monday.

[...]

The former president [of the homeowners’ association for the community where Mr. Trimarco lives, who said Tuesday that he had stepped in to help form an interim association] described himself in a telephone interview as a military veteran who would fight for anyone’s right to free speech, peace symbols included.

Town Manager Mark Garcia said Pagosa Springs was building its own peace wreath, too. Mr. Garcia said it would be finished by late Tuesday and installed on a bell tower in the center of town.

This is in some community 200 miles from Denver, where Colorado gets seriously red (this town may not be bright red, but it ain't Boulder, either). And in a matter of days, the community, with near-unanimity, utterly annihilated this attempt at anti-American censorship.

I was just perusing some Eschaton from late March 2003, and it's striking to remember just how bad things were then. NBC bragging about their great combat cameras, Drum was touting crazy liberal professors, and it was entirely unclear where things were headed in Iraq (there was talk about how Americans would respond to more than a few dozen casualties). But here we are, 3 1/2 years later, and sanity is returning. There's no strife in Pagosa Springs, no one marching with flags past the Trimarcos' home, no BS. Just a community coming together to defend their collective right to express their beliefs.

Something to be thankful for.