My neighbor hung a confederate flag

up on his balcony two days after Kort and I moved in. This disturbed both of us, but we never talked about it. We thought perhaps that we live next to young college kids who have some sort of Southern pride complex and don't understand the weight of symbols that they deploy. I did find the timing of the hanging strange, to coincide with our move-in, but dismissed it as best I could. Last night, Coconut Diaries came over to meet us at our apartment before we went to dinner at Kobe Steaks. I watched at the way that she stared at the flag in horror and thought about what that symbol means to other ethnic groups and how they have experienced oppression and violence throughout history. When she came over after dinner and then left within a few minutes, I wondered if it was that she had to work early in the morning, or if there was an underlying feeling of dis-ease or lack of safety. And I wondered too how many steps away is Dixie from the Nazi swastika - Aryan nation being a reality and all. And do I live next door to a cracker or just a kid who believes in his "freedom of expression" and what kind of conversation am I going to have with the management company who condones inappropriate patio decorations but doesn't police it and no matter how I talk about it, will it be reduced on the other end to "what are you talking about - we have a black president, there's no such thing as racism!"