Celebrating diversity

We're getting art instead of politics at a local intersection.

Photo by Cory Woodward on Unsplash. It’s not the crosswalk in question, but you get the idea.

In the city of Salisbury, Maryland, there is a key intersection that is bounded on all four corners by significant buildings or spaces: on the west is the recently-built Unity Square public gathering place, on the north is the city’s parking garage with capacity for hundreds of cars, on the south is the main county library - which is soon to be demolished and replaced by a performing arts center for nearby Salisbury University, with the library being relocated to a more suburban area - and on the east corner is a historic fire station that now serves the city as office space and City Council chambers as they’ve outgrown the Government Office Building down the street.

Back in 2018, former Salisbury Mayor Jake Day - who is now the state’s Secretary of Housing and Community Development - allowed the local chapter of PFLAG to adopt a crosswalk at this intersection to be the first rainbow crosswalk in the state of Maryland, as the group claims. The group annually (except in the midst of COVID) has come back to touch up the crossing with donated paint and labor, but with the city’s blessing as it grew into a “partnership” that included the annual repainting as part of “Pride Month” by 2021. That year the group added “progress pride” and transgender crosswalks at the same intersection.

On the first repaint, local PFLAG president Mark DeLancey explained, “It keeps us front and center in front of the community, and it lets everyone know who we are, that we’re here, we’re proud.”

However, after Day left for the state job in 2023 and interim mayor Jack Heath decided to pass on a full term in the upcoming election, the result of the 2023 balloting brought Republican-backed Randy Taylor to the mayor’s chair as the Democrats and minority community split the remaining vote between two other candidates. With the new mayor in town, the 2024 rainbow flag-raising ceremony was moved to private property, no longer being held at the city offices.

Furthermore, dire predictions that the 2024 repainting would be the last one came true as Taylor announced recently the conversion of the crosswalks into the subject of an art competition.

Mayor Randy Taylor has announced plans to repaint the crosswalks at the intersection of South Division Street and West/East Market Street as part of a broader initiative to maintain neutrality in public spaces. The existing Pride crosswalk will be replaced with a new, artist-designed pattern that reflects the City's identity.

"Our City is home to a diverse and vibrant community, and we want our public spaces to be welcoming to all," said Mayor Taylor. "However, we also have a responsibility to ensure that government property remains neutral and does not promote any particular movement or cause. By moving forward with a neutral design, we are ensuring that city property remains a place where every individual, regardless of background or belief, feels they belong."

To achieve this vision, the city is launching The Crosswalk Canvas, a rotating Downtown Salisbury art initiative to design a new crosswalk that embodies the character, history or artistic vibrancy of the City of Salisbury while steering clear of any political or ideological affiliations. The selected artist will receive a $3,000 stipend for design and implementation.

Of course, most of the comments on the city’s social media post are negative, but that’s to be expected when the Rainbow Mafia has something taken away from them. A lot of them speak about blackballing artists who may enter the contest for a new design or making a design that’s “even gayer.”

Rather than have the city spend money on this redesign, though, how about another idea for the hopper? Of the three crosswalks, perhaps the one where the stripes run perpendicular to the sidewalk (like the picture above) would work best for this.

They keep one crosswalk, the other two are paved or painted over. PFLAG can come and paint their rainbow crosswalk on a Saturday morning, and presumably so the street isn’t closed for an unnecessary length of time, the paint is quick-drying.

In the afternoon once the paint is dry, a church or community group will stencil the following in black or white, one verse for each line of the rainbow:

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:

I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds,

I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.

Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”

This is Genesis 9:12-17, which discusses the true meaning of the rainbow. If it’s impractical for legibility’s sake to have all six lines, the final two will be sufficient.

Oh, I can hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth already from the “separation of church and state” crowd. To me, it’s either that or just a standard crosswalk because now you’re embracing true diversity: the worldly embrace of sinful behavior vs. the Word of God, our Creator.

We won’t know until this fall just what design makes the cut - if any are received - but it’s amazing how groups like PFLAG suddenly become fiscal hawks when the city wants to put up a paltry $3,000 stipend to paint over “their” crosswalk on city property.

Are there more important things to worry about? Of course there are, but that was also the case back when the crosswalk alteration was approved seven years ago.

The group should be happy they got a crosswalk when they had a collective cow about a world-renowned man of the cloth simply speaking in the city back in 2023 - many of those thousands who came to Salisbury to see the Rev. Graham and the musical groups had to walk by those crosswalks, so why not a reminder of the truth Franklin Graham may well approve of?

Last week was the two-year anniversary of this event. Looking at the controversy about the rainbow crosswalk, methinks it’s time for Franklin Graham to come back to our town to give us a spiritual booster shot.

In the meantime, though, you can Buy Me a Coffee, since I have a page there now.