#secularsoapbox

So, I’ll be frank with you, this story isn’t actually about witches.

However, it is about the Salem Witch Trials mentality sneaking its way into my rural small town here in 2020 and it scares me.

So, about a year or two ago, we had this homeless man appear in our small town. This originally wouldn’t be a big deal, it’s a small railroad/freeway town and we get homeless passing through quite often.

The weird part here is that this man was/is ALWAYS in a clean/unstained completely white outfit. White beanie, shirt, hoodie, pants, and shoes.

His clothes were never dirty and he immediately stood out. We began calling him “The Man in White.” Rumors and gossip immediately began spreading about him. People began speculation immediately.

Some approached him and asked about him. He said that “God wanted him here in this town to help the children” and that he’ll “know when it’s time” or something along those lines.

People immediately began speculating about him potentially being a pedophile and whatnot. We have a Facebook group for locals and EVERYONE uses it for gossip/debates constantly.

Eventually, he began loitering at the local Starbucks often and a young female employee told a local that he makes her uncomfortable. Now, I understand, and I want people to feel safe in their workplace, but remember that this man never did anything wrong other than being homeless and constantly talked and speculated about.

Shortly after, said local made a post in the group about how the town needs to team up and protect our children because the police and Starbucks aren’t going to do anything about him. Thus began a campaign to complain about him as much as possible to Starbucks management and even higher ups outside of the store. 

Eventually, Starbucks and police informed him he was not welcome and that he would be arrested if he came back. My memory is foggy here but I believe he may have been arrested for loitering here some time afterwards if not that very day.

Either way, he was given the same treatment at all of the local restaurants and fast food places and was much later arrested at Taco Bell for trespassing as well. Keep in mind, every time he was arrested he then walked back to our town which is about a 14+ hour walk back.

So far, the only crimes this man committed were going to restaurants/fast food businesses, being homeless, and I believe smoking weed in public once. The rumors continued though. Every arrest was blown out of proportion and the subject of heavy gossip.

Throughout this time, the pedophile theory kept coming back up as well. Someone found a homeless man on Megan’s Law that looked a lot like him and everybody KNEW it was him. Except, it was not, he actually hung out with that man and there are pictures online of the two of them together. 

We know his legal name now, both from him and from the arrest reports. The man on Megan’s Law is certainly not him, yet many in our town never got the memo. I have to correct locals and show proof constantly because these damn Gen Xers believe everything they read on the internet once as long as it goes with their bias.

So, as far as the town is concerned, hes a dangerous homeless drug addict pedophile and their minds will likely never be changed.

The reason I began this rant today, is that he was jumped and badly beaten the other night. Two men in ski masks appeared out of the darkness and beat him bloody. Some rumors even claimed that they shot his dog but that part has since been debunked.

The most sickening part? The Facebook group is ECSTATIC about it. Memes, bragging, thanking, jokes about doing it again. It’s sickening. I asked the reason why this happened and the main response was almost always something along the lines of “We need to protect our women and children.”

These people are constantly laughing, bragging, and posting updates about his black and bloodied face and his eye swollen shut. They’re already making jokes about a phase two and things like that. 

They love it and it’s disgusting. 

I’ve still yet to uncover any reasonable proof that he did anything other than one person claiming that he heard from someone that they heard from someone that he was threatening women and children.

Is The Man in White guilty? I’m honestly not sure, he’s super weird and if the town didn’t turn him into a martyr I’d probably have far less positive feelings about him personally. He certainly could be a bad and dangerous pedophile, I won’t deny that. But what truly sickens me is that we don’t know. 

There are few things more terrifying to me than the idea of an innocent living thing being punished for something it didn’t do, especially so harshly.

“Innocent until proven guilty.”

Please, don’t profile, don’t jump to conclusions, and definitely don’t put ski masks on and gang beat an elderly man in the dark.