A Lapeer, Michigan mother recently woke up to find somebody had vandalized her home by putting a swastika on the front door using spray paint.
Erin M. Zettle said her eyes began to weld up with tears from the nasty symbol of both racism and hate. She said her initial reaction was to paint over the sign or scrub it off. However, she decided to go another route.
Rather than scrubbing the sign off, she opted to take a picture of it to make the community aware of what happened. She also covered the symbol with her own message – a sign that used a moving quote from the infamous headmaster Dumbledore from the Harry Potter series. The message and her post have gone viral.
The message noted that her house had been vandalized during the overnight hours of Monday. She was upset and fearful, wondering who would do such a thing. She wondered if it was someone she knew or if it was just a nasty person.
Zettle wrote she cried.
She wrote that it wasn’t the community she knew, but something happening in her community. She wouldn’t judge the entire community on the actions of so few.
Zettle wrote she went to her basement for a paintbrush, paint, and tarp. She changed her mind, writing that some idiot was going to get an answer back rather than seeing her repaint the door. She said what she wanted to do more of all was correct the painter’s mistake, as the vandal had painted the swastika backward.
Instead, she decided there was enough hate going in the world and went with a Dumbledore quote instead. It read:
“Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times. If one only remembers to turn on the light.”
She later wrote that everybody was fine and she was much calmer.
Zettle has kept the poster on the door and is currently using quotes that Facebook friends suggest. It currently has a quote from Dr. MLK Jr.
This is a great way to handle a negative situation!