the orange poster

Last week my campus put up posters advertising a Justice Talk on the LGBTQ community hoping to introduce a conversation about understanding and loving that community on this campus. In the following days after the posters were hung up, people began finding them shredded to bits on the ground or tacked to the bulletin boards. Causing hurt and confusion amongst our campus, people were shocked at the inhumanity.  

This act had nothing to do with differing beliefs and everything to do with hatred.

That person (or those people) who ripped the posters were telling this campus that unless you are a specific type of person, you do not belong here. They were telling us that it doesn't matter what we may think because they are unwilling to allow a conversation that is nothing more than discussing how to love one another better. Most importantly, they were telling us that there are people on this campus who know exactly how to destroy and damage any efforts to love, protect, and encourage individuals on this campus. 

And to me, that is a much scarier thought.

The following weekend, I got an idea from a poster that was hung up in my hometown and decided to create a poster of my own:

I shared the following on social media: "There is hate and prejudice on this campus. As a student, I will not stand for it, but I will stand with you. I’m giving out these posters for people to hang on their doors. Let me know if you would like one."

Immediately I was contacted through text, email, comments, and direct messages by so many people who had felt the hurt and also felt the urge to do something about it. The posters were brought up in a social justice class, someone from another university has begun to hang them up on her campus, and an MVNU student studying abroad in the U.K now has one of the posters.

That night, I walked into my apartment-mate's room crying and said "I love the world!", she responded "but last week you said you hated it", and to that I confessed,

"yes, but this week - I love it"

Completely overwhelmed, I saw the humanity once again. I saw people joining in on an opportunity to be a part of something that is good, right, and true. Something that provided meaning and purpose. Something that gave people hope. 

If you are someone who believes in loving all people - someone who desires to be a safe place, print off this poster and hang it on your door. Hang it on your door knowing that on the doors of people at Mount Vernon Nazarene University, Ohio Northern, and in the U.K, there also hangs an orange poster.