Debi Ryan, manager of Vox Pop, posted her reaction to the desecration of the coffee shop's Statue of Liberty statue on Facebook:
stood proudly in front of Vox Pop has been destroyed. The Statue was
used in a disturbing video posted on You Tube. I am not sure why they
chose our statue to perpetrate this crime, but a crime it is. It has
been stolen and destroyed and used as a message of hate and this
situation is being taken very seriously by our law enforcement
agencies. Whatever their intent may have been, the outcome is clear. I
have every confidence that the miscreants will be found and prosecuted
to the fullest extent of the law. While I believe in the right for
everyone to say what they think, whether I personally agree with it or
not, I do not believe they have the right to destroy someone else's
property to do it.
Vox Pop is a community owned coffee shop. We
offer fair trade coffees and teas, organic foods, live music, poetry
readings, independently published books and a gallery of local artist
works. We strive to create a welcoming, open space for people to meet,
relax and discuss the world around them. Our broad range of programming
includes children's story hour and movement classes, independent film
screenings, workshops on sustainability and meditation and even bicycle
repair. I am saddened that they chose to target our neighborhood space.
In
spite of what you may have read, I am not in fear for my life, I do not
feel personally targeted and I don't believe it was trying to shut us
up. If they were targeting what we represent, then I guess they were
targeting community. Because, to me, that is what Vox Pop represents.
And I for one will not let this incident change that. I loved that
statue, and I will miss her gracing our garden, standing for our
Liberty and our freedom to be whomever we choose to be. While she may
be gone, what she symbolizes is still alive and well at Vox Pop.
@pokey – Debi’s comment was posted to the Vox Pop group on Facebook. So yeah, most of the people the message was directed at HAD heard about it, because we’d all been notified when the statue went missing, and there was a community effort underway to locate it.
Got anything else to add? Didn’t think so.
“As I am sure you have all heard by now,” really?? I had not.