Some people just can't leave well enough alone...
To the people of this bucolic beach town, she was the "mystery skater," the "roller-blading anti-American," and a bunch of other names too graphic to be repeated. How Lynda Ragsdale acquired those names is a tale of contrasting definitions of what it means to be a patriot in a time of war.
| I suppose it depends on how loosely you define "patriot." |
Ragsdale said all she was trying to do when she got out her scissors and strapped on her skates last week was to get rid of pro-war clutter attached to the large shade trees that line the town's quaint main street, Linden Avenue. That clutter just happened to be yellow ribbons attached to the trees by residents trying to show support for troops overseas. By the time she was done skating and snipping, she had removed two dozen ribbons and made herself public enemy No. 1.
| Very patriotic. Yep. Puts her right up there with Patrick Henry... |
Since then, Ragsdale, a 30-year-old layabout artist and spiritual seeker who is currently reading a book channeled through an angel named Kryon, has been a target for anonymous callers and people cruising by her house.
| Golly. I can't imagine why. It's not like she had her picture taken on an antiaircraft gun while U.S. planes were flying over... But then, she didn't have an antiaircraft gun, did she? |
If she seems a trifle off-center, she admits as much, calling herself a nut "bourgeois bohemian." She described her childhood as one of grinding poverty in a white ghetto on the south side of Chicago. Food was not always plentiful, and when the gas was shut off for nonpayment, she and her sister and brother took cold showers. At 14, she said, she went to work as a restaurant hostess. "I had a lot of things to overcome," she said.
| "I'm not responsible for my own actions. I have issues." |
You might say she made herself up as she went along. The result is a determined, voraciously curious woman with unshakable beliefs. One of those is that war is usually a pretty crummy idea. "If somebody was standing on my porch with a gun, I would defend myself," she said.
But she never saw Saddam Hussein standing on America's porch.
As for the argument that the ribbons don't indicate support for the war but only for the fighting soldiers, Ragsdale considers that an intellectual shell game. If you're pro-troops and the troops are fighting a war, you're for the war, her theory goes.
| Gee. We agree on something. If you say you're pro-troops but oppose the war, then you're anti-troops. |
Worse, Ragsdale thought putting up ribbons all over town was communicating the message that everyone in Carpinteria was pro-war.
After being cornered at the gas station, she said, she tried to skate off. But one of the crowd yelled, "Don't let her get away." She said she only managed to escape by cowering hiding in some bushes.
Interesting read. Just goes to show that some people believe THEY, and THEY ALONE have "rights". |