When Someone Destroyed Our Pride Flags, Our Tiny Town Sprang into Action

We don’t know who’s been vandalizing the rainbow flags in our small Wisconsin community, but we learned a thing or two about kindness from the response.

Photos by Chris LeRoux

“Come see!” my spouse, Wendy, calls to me from the top of the drive. We are doing winter clean up and I have no idea what she is up to.

“See what?” I yell back.

“Just come look!” Wendy comes past the trees to where she can see me and waves for me to come. She’s wearing jeans, work boots, one of her many, old, marathon finisher t-shirts and holding a bright yellow deWALT drill.

When I crest the hill and see what she’s done, it feels like the moment in “The Wizard of Oz” when the world goes from sepia to technicolor.

“What do you think?” Wendy asks, her eyes twinkling and a satisfied grin on her face.

“It’s beautiful. Wow! You really got it up there.” In our salvaged wood pile at the barn she found a sturdy, 12-foot one-by-one, planted it in the ground, and anchored it to our mailbox post. Now, high above our weather-worn, hand-painted mailbox, the rainbow flag flew, waving in the breeze, its happy colors bright in the sun.

I’m surprised at how moved I am by the sight. W…