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.
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