See Something, Say Something

by Angela K. Durden
Technology inventor protecting creator's copyrights. Business writer, novelist, songwriter, and Citizen Journalist.


This past Labor Day weekend found me in beautiful Downtown Decatur, Georgia, where the AJC Decatur Book Festival was held for the twelfth year.

I am part of a group (Sisters in Crime — Atlanta Chapter) who rented tent space. Other than a mere mention in official festival literature of where our tent was, you wouldn't know that we had two days of panelists featuring twenty-four authors who write a wide range of crime fiction. From cozies to thrillers, we cover it. Why we were not in the official listing of things to do is another story for another time.

But as an exhibitor, I received a packet containing letters from the mayor and festival president as well as instructions on how to collect, report, and turn in collected sales tax.

But these weren't the best things in the packet. 

The best was a notice entitled: "See Something, Say Something."

You need to understand that Decatur, Georgia, is where the Politically Correct hang out. We have Emory University and Agnes Scott College, the CDC, a VA Hospital, and several coffee shops run by men in exquisitely coiffed long beards, matching suspenders and flannel shirts sporting skinny-leg skintight jeans.

In other words, one does not make public that one has a concealed carry permit if one wants to have anybody to talk to. Verboten subjects are: Guns, guns, and guns.

These people are accepting of people from everywhere. The City of Decatur attracts the best and the brightest from around the world and is a hotbed of creativity from medicine, science, and technology to art, literature, and music.

That's why I found it interesting and not a little bit unnerving that exhibitors were given these instructions:

"If you see something suspicious taking place, or see a suspicious package, then report that behavior or activity to [contact info was inserted here]."

All that was fine and made sense. The next paragraph is the kicker as it had to define what is not to be considered suspicious:

"Factors such as race, ethnicity, national origin, or religious affiliation alone are not suspicious. For that reason, the public should report only suspicious behavior and situations (e.g., an unattended backpack in a public place or someone trying to break into a restricted ares) rather than beliefs, thoughts, ideas, expressions, associations, or speech unrelated to terrorism or other criminal activity."

That the festival organizers thought so little of their exhibitors that they felt the need to remind them to be tolerant was insulting in the extreme.