I'm incredibly, tremendously, un-apologetically PROUD of my home town right now.
For generations, hate and misogyny have had their thumb on Harrison, AR.
It's a small community, where most people are kind, genuine, and quick to help a stranger in need.
However, there is a small, small fraction of the town's population who have taken it upon themselves to keep the diversity at bay, even erecting a "white pride" billboard along the main strip, leaving the rest of the country to believe the entire town is full of uneducated, racist, homophobes...
...like this guy:
As you're reading this, brave residents have taken to the streets for the 2nd Annual Harrison, AR Pride Fest! (The photos/video in this post just came across my newsfeed a short while ago.)
Despite threats of protests and violence, they marched down Main St, through the town square, over the Crooked Creek Bridge (where, at one time, they might have been lynched for this kind of thing. I'll get to that in another post.), and on to the city park for a day of music, food, love, and laughter.
But not without some opposition...
Last year's kick off of this new, beautiful movement was so much more than anyone had expected. Even with rain dumping on the festival half of the day, a large crowd still gathered. Of course, so did the protesters. However, the word has spread, and the few people who are still involved in the KKK in the area have turned to the internet to rally other dim-witted cronies to come to town on Pride Day and take a dump all over progress.
Let's just say things are tense in Harrison right now...
(The old man standing in the middle of the street with a sign is Tom Robb, leader of the hopeless, self-proclaimed "national director" - aka, Grand Master - of the KKK. He is also the reason great businesses and good people have avoided coming to my home town for so long. This is a man who enjoys being as hated as he is.)