Norman Boyden’s extra-large yard sign supporting Donald Trump for president is still standing outside of the clock shop he runs out of his home in Williston, despite the efforts of one or more vandals.
The Vietnam veteran lives on Essex Road, the main corridor between Essex Junction and Williston, and he uses his road-side real estate to promote his choice for president. The public display of support for the divisive Republican candidate has become a target for vandalism in recent weeks, Boyden says.
“It’s been vandalized eight times. It’s been cut and broken up, it’s been painted red, it’s been painted black, it’s been cut away and stolen. Yesterday a gentleman was caught sweeping up all the signs that I had out there and stuffing them in his car,” Boyden said over a chorus of chiming bells and the tick-tock of the clocks on display in the store. In the driveway, a sign close to the door of the shop designates veterans-only parking.
Boyden’s signs don’t just attract vandals, though. Early Monday afternoon, a Plattsburgh couple came into the shop and asked for Boyden so they could thank him for the political display. They refused an interview, but they asked Boyden to come outside and pose for a photo in front of the sign. Boyden says he’s also heard messages of support from Clinton supporters who, despite their disagreement on who should become president, have condemned the vandalism of the signs and commended Boyden on his persistence.
The man accused of the latest vandalism is 23-year-old Rashid Atweh of Essex. Boyden says a passerby noticed the vandalism in progress and blocked Atweh’s car into the driveway until police came. Atweh was cited for unlawful mischief.
Boyden says the repeated vandalism of the signs outside his shop is evidence of some of the larger problems facing the United States in this election.
“The political process right now is in trouble,” Boyden says. “I think that there is a lot of hatred and intolerance going on. I think that we’re slipping away from a nation of laws. There’s too many individuals acting rogue and trying to force their ideas on someone else, and something's got to be done to stop [it]. I believe that we need to have some significant change in leadership, and that’s why I’m actively doing what I’m doing to support that.”
"The political process right now is in trouble. I think that there is a lot of hatred and intolerance going on. I think that we're slipping away from a nation of laws." - Norman Boyden
Boyden says he hopes a Trump presidency would help.
“Our freedoms are eroding,” he says. “Just look at what’s going on today here, and know that this is lawlessness. And I’m afraid it's not going to get over easy or quickly.”
Boyden doesn’t get defensive at the suggestion that Trump himself has introduced some of the negativity involved in this year’s campaigns.
“Donald Trump is not a saint,” Boyden says. “He is not someone who has done everything the way I would like to have had him had things done. I’m not a saint, I’ve made some foolish mistakes too. Hopefully you learn from your mistakes, and that’s called experience. You don’t get it by osmosis. You do something, ‘Hmm that wasn’t such a great idea, let’s try something better next time.’ All of us have that. All of us have made mistakes.”
Boyden says Trump’s mistakes from the past are being made an issue in this election.
The Access Hollywood video in which Trump talked about groping women was recorded in 2005. To Boyden, that’s a contrast to Hillary Clinton’s mistakes.
“Trump’s mistakes that they seem to be capitalizing are something he did a long time ago – at least that’s what they’ve been headlining," he said. "The other side’s mistakes I think are being made currently. And I feel that they feel that they don’t have to obey the law, that they’re above the law, that the law can’t touch them, so they do whatever they want, and that’s what I can’t tolerate.”
