Yesterday, I attended a charming, small town parade up in an old Colorado mining town. One room school house. Loving, rowdy, open community (even the barbeques were open).  Music, and children (and dogs) running around unattended.

Then, we attended a pro soccer game, an hour’s drive away, plus 20 minutes of traffic-jamming into vast, filled-up parking lots. There were buckets of trash and unrecycled recycling everywhere. No composting or recycling options. A full bin of hot dogs, left by the trash. The whole experience was…shocking.

But then, the game itself—community, a mass of humanity (so missed since Covid), diversity, young and old. Out of my bubble. But, still, plastic-wrapped cotton candy, colored sugar in plastic cups, plastic bottled Coke-owned Dasani everywhere. A plastic field, and plastic uniforms. And then…

I saw this symbol on the hat & tee of a bearded pudgy man.

I mourned the death of all those in the King Soopers shooting here in Boulder, my hometown. All of us did here, and around the world.

So I was disappointed to see a symbol of hate—the white supremacy’s fave US flag with Punisher skull (a symbol of “violence is okay” and misunderstanding of the point of the og Punisher, btw with the Blue Lives Matter line) displayed prominently over Officer Talley’s SUV memorial in front of the police station.

Symbols of hate are not an appropriate way to express mourning…or, you know, patriotism.

I was shocked to see it again, on a tee and hat of a bearded pudgy boy in the Rapids’ stadium, yesterday.

And, it’s all over Etsy, for sale.

These days, it’s everywhere. Even at our Capitol!

Are hate symbols being given a pass?