We want to believe we live in an open and welcoming community. And we do. Madison County and Marshall welcomed me and others over forty years ago and continue to embrace the flocks of new people moving here in recent years. I’ve always felt that openness was one of the county’s best features and certainly something that kept me here.
But I think we are fooling ourselves if we assume everyone thinks this way. They don’t. The signs are everywhere in the county—confederate flags, trump billboards, election signage—all speaking to divisiveness, hate, and fear. This is our reality, this unsettledness and division within our community, and we ignore it at our peril.