Flap erupts over photos of Bush at market stand (RAT demands it come down!)

Flap erupts over photos of Bush at market stand
Democrat City Councilman Nelson Polite says the photos are inappropriate in a public place.
Others rally behind standholder.

LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - David Stoltzfus says there’s only one reason he would take down the photos of President George W. Bush that he has displayed at his Central Market baked-goods stand.

Bush would have had to have lost the recent election. Instead, he beat Democratic challenger John Kerry to win a second term.

“If it were Kerry that won, he’d be up there,’’ says Stoltzfus, who operates the Upper Crust stand.

Doesn’t matter, says City Councilman Nelson Polite. “It should come down. This is a public market.”

Besides, says the Democrat, “Bush didn’t win here (in Lancaster City). It is like rubbing salt on a wound.”

Polite approached Stoltzfus on Nov. 12 and ask him to remove the pictures. The standholder has refused to do so, prompting Polite to say he will ask City Council to change the law so that all political items would be banned in public places.

Today, Stoltzfus pointed proudly to a photo of a smiling Bush, framed in green, that hangs above his stand.

The photo, attached to the stand portico with four brass screws, has hung there for nearly two years, since Stoltzfus and his wife, Nina, opened the market stand in March 2003.

They also have a signed 8-by-10-inch photo of the president and first lady Laura Bush sitting on a shelf below, “right next to the pictures of my grandkids,’’ says Stoltzfus.

“I’m just trying to sell a few cakes and give honor to the president,’’ he says.

When he approached Stoltzfus three weeks ago, he said the photo offended him and city Democrats.

Polite says he had received complaints from constituents who thought the photos were inappropriate, especially after the presidential election.

The market is public property and displaying political paraphernalia, no matter what the intent, says Polite, is inappropriate and divisive.

Stoltzfus is a Republican, but that hardly matters, he says. He displays the photo to honor the office, not the man.

Polite says political items do not belong in Central Market and if Stoltzfus refuses to take down the photos, he’ll take the matter before City Council to get the city law changed to ban all political items in public places.

Even if Kerry had won, he’d be asking Stoltzfus to take the photos down, says Polite.

A string of supporters, including Republican Mayor Charlie Smithgall and former Republican Mayor Art Morris, have made their way to the Upper Crust to offer their support to Stoltzfus.

“We have no regulations against it,” says Smithgall. “He is the president of the United States. If he wants to put a picture of (Democratic) Gov. Rendell up, that’s fine by me.”

Some of Stoltzfus’ fellow standholders are considering putting up photos of Bush in solidarity with Stoltzfus.

“(Stoltzfus) has every right to put the pictures up. We pays rent here. Anyway, we’re in America.”

Market Master Ernie Thomas said there are no rules about hanging political items at market stands.

Even if there was, says Thomas, “That is our president, whether it is a Democrat or a Republican.”

Jim Zink, the owner of the Herb Shop stand, says he is a Democrat. But he’ll hang a photo of Bush to support Stoltzfus’ right to hang his.

“He has every right to hang it,’’ Zink says of Stoltzfus. He says it doesn’t offend him as a Democrat to see Bush.

This has been a lead story here in the Lancaster area for the past forty-eight hours. I’m not the least bit surprised at Councilman Polite’s behavior. He is a democrat’s democrat – always mouthing off about tolerance, caring for the less advantaged, etc., and yet always pushing to remove rights and freedoms from the citizens of Lancaster city.

He is very active in the Alliance for Tolerance and Freedom, and was a guest speaker at a ‘Stop the Hate’ rally in Lancaster back in October. The Alliance focuses on (in their own words) bringing together people from diverse backgrounds, religious traditions, and nationalities, in the hope that they can promote understanding of our differences and embrace diversity as a way to help eradicate violence and misunderstanding between classes, cultures, religions, nationalities, races, and communities.

Polite often makes public speaking appearances, and the topic of his speeches is very often the need for tolerance and open-mindedness.

So he meets the democrat/leftist criterion to practice ultimate hypocrisy, and has proven so by his recent interactions with David Stoltzfus.

I have a beautiful 20x24 framed copy of President Bush’s official portrait that is given to federal officials to hang in their offices. The son of a good friend of ours is the head of the department of agriculture in Kansas. He had an extra copy of the portrait and he saved it for me and gave it to me last year when I traveled through the state. I used to have it hanging in my office, but do not have it there anymore.

The Central Market in Lancaster only conducts business on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. Either Friday or Saturday, I plan to drive down to the market, shake Mr. Stoltzfus’s hand, and offer him the portrait. (He may not accept it, not wanting to take the confrontation to a higher level, and I will certainly understand that, but would like to at least offer it to him). I also plan to print out all of the comments on this thread and give him a copy of FReepers’ views on his and Polite’s confrontation. Stoltzfus is a very common Amish/Mennonite name, so I rather doubt that Mr. Stoltzfus has a computer, let alone access to FR.

Hypocrisy is an ignoble trait. But when its practice seeks to restrict the liberties of others it progresses from ignoble to sinister. Fortunately, in this case, the progression will be stopped in its tracks by public outcry. Freedom of speech, praticed by many outraged patriots, will have worked to preserve the freedom of speech of one of our own.

~ joanie

Mike, today's addendum to yesterday's 'report'...

My husband and I drove down to Central Market (a wonderful market located in the center of Lancaster City, housed in a Romanesque revival style building, constructed in 1889 – and the oldest continuously-running, publicly owned market in America) and sought out David Stoltzfus's bakery stand. He wasn't hard to find.

We introduced ourselves and told him that we are familiar with the controversy that his photos of the President (and Mrs. Bush) have caused, and shook his hand. I told him that I participate in a conservative political internet forum, that his story had received notice there, and then handed him a folder containing a printout of this thread and all of the comments. He was deeply touched and extremely grateful.

Rick then told him that we had a large, framed copy of the President's official portrait in our car, which had been given to a friend who heads the agriculture department in Kansas, and that we (and our friend) would like him to have it. He stood there, somewhat stunned, and asked, 'You mean you want to give it to me?' When we assured him that we did, he became a little emotional and said, 'You're going to bring me to tears.'

Rick returned to the car and retrieved the portrait, and we presented it to him. He was far more appreciative that I had expected, and we were both deeply moved by his response.

David Stoltzfus's bakery stand, with the two photos of the President and Mrs. Bush,
and one official photo of the President alone, on display

Stoltzfus holding one of his photos
(with the larger one we presented to him leaning against his display case)

Mr. Stoltzfus is a humble, but well-spoken man, who runs his bakery business out of his home in Lititz (a town just outside of Lancaster). He bakes mostly for restaurants, but sells to the public three days a week at Central Market. His home-based business is doing so well that he will soon be opening up a bakery/delicatessen in Leola (another nearby town in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country).

He did not set out to create waves, but he intends to stand his ground on this important free-speech issue (Councilman Polite apparently has not yet given up his fight to have the photographs removed, despite the enormous and vocal public support that Stoltzfus is receiving).

Stoltzfus said that it was apparent that Polite was 'on a mission' when he showed up at the bakery stand last month. He gruffly informed Stoltzfus that he would have to remove the pictures of the President because they were 'offensive' and 'inappropriate' – to which Stoltzfus replied that he would not, because it amounted to a Constitutional freedom of speech issue. Councilman Polite informed him that the confrontation would not end there, and that the issue would be 'taken to a higher power' (no doubt referring to City Council itself).

In the perhaps twenty minutes that we spoke with him, four or five other people came up and inquired as to whether he was the man who was 'being harassed'. They all sought him out in order to offer their support, and Rick and I had excellent conversations with them as as well. To a man, they were well-informed, and strongly acknowledged the need to take an immovable stand on such issues at the local level.

Afterwards, we walked around the rest of the market and noticed that perhaps a full half of the other stands were proudly displaying pictures of the President. I strongly suspect that a good many of those pictures were hung after the Stoltzfus/Polite confrontation, as a show of solidarity.

Rick and I met a good example of hardy and steadfast 'middle America' yesterday, and we are extremely proud to have made his acquaintance.

~ joanie

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