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A Halloween decoration in Old Greenwich representing Donald Trump has stoked quite a bit of controversy over the last week.
It all started on Monday with an email that circulated around town, arguing that what some might think was a harmless joke was really a sign of a much deeper problem in the town, a decline of civility as it were, especially the day after the second assassination attempt on Trump in as many months.
The photo depicted what appeared to be a Trump skeleton hanging from a tree, with a bandage over the right ear.
By Wednesday, the controversy over the decoration had risen to the attention of Greenwich Time reporter Andy Blye, who came down to OG to see what the hubbub was all about. He published an article on Thursday titled, "Spooky Trump skeleton in Old Greenwich is 'political satire' for Halloween, owner says."
The shop owner, Lisa Salley, told Blye that some people were concerned about how the Trump skeleton might be viewed a day after Ryan Wesley Routh's assassination plans were foiled by the Secret Service. She removed the bandage from the skeleton's ear in response to those concerns. We probably would have kept the bandage and added a sign in the skeleton's hand saying "0-2" or "bulletproof"... but we digress.
Then Christopher Fountain blogged about the story in a post titled, She's something special, alright.
"Miss Salley doesn't say which part of the 52% of her fellow Democrats she's part of: sure that the country would be better off had Trump been killed, or just "conflicted," said Fountain in the post. (Note that we looked up Salley's voter registration on voterrecords.com, and it said "unaffiliated.")
As commenters on Fountain's blog started chiming in, the pitchforks came out for Salley. One commenter even suggested it could be a hate crime for placing a "noose" around the neck of the Trump skeleton.
Might the skeleton be reported to First Selectman Fred Camillo's Thought Police?
"She's ok, because Trump isn't in a racial minority group," says a commenter named Susie, who also promised to stop shopping at Salley's store.
The original title of the blog post got updated later in the day after a comment from "The Politics of RINOs":
UPDATE: A reader insists that the owner is a Trump supporter, and was only joking. I'm not convinced, but his comment can be found below; you can decide.
The Politics of RINOs immediately got attacked and was assumed to be a liar in "CYA mode."
"No HUGE Trump supporter ever would hang him," commented EOS. "Nope. There are any number of fun Halloween ways the shop owner could have made the two nominees look spooky but dangling from a noose is not one. And in what possible way is the witch a likeness of Kamala??? There’s nothing that would make the passerby say “how fun, Kamala as a witch”. Yet the Trump character leaves no doubt who she’s hanging."
You can tell from the picture above that both skeletons were hung in the same manner on the tree using a little chain attached to the skeleton's head, not exactly a noose, and probably the only way to keep the skeletons vertical and out of the way of passersby on the sidewalk.
The first thing we noticed is that the skeleton display in the front of the store had been changed since the controversy first erupted on Monday.
The skeletons were no longer hanging from the tree.
They're not eating the dogs. They're not eating the cats. But they are eating the rats today.
Lisa Salley was delightful and pleasant when we went into the store, immediately taking time to chat. We asked if she had seen all of the comments on Fountain's blog; she hadn't, so we showed her.
She shook her head while skimming the comments and said, somewhat bewildered, "So I'm a crazy liberal now?"
That's when Salley confirmed she's voting for Trump, especially since she's a small business owner.
We specifically asked for permission to share that comment to clear up the misinformation in the blog post, and she agreed.
Salley lamented how everybody is so "nuts" these days about politics -- everything is so heated and divisive -- that's why she thinks political satire is important, to lighten the air a little. She misses the days when we could all have our own opinions, and still laugh and get along, even if politically on opposite sides of the spectrum.
But not anymore.
By the way, this isn't the first time someone has taken issue with one of her displays. A few years ago, a couple of people accused Salley of "practicing witchcraft" because of a Halloween witch she had hanging from the tree.
Despite the controversy, Salley promised to continue her tradition of decorating the space, changing it up from time to time.
And as we were standing outside, joking about how maybe it would be better if the skeletons were eating some of the geese that flock to Binney Park, an older lady walked by and complemented Salley on the display, which made everyone smile.
