Mystery Political Signs Urging Kindness Appear in Wilton–to Unite, NOT Divide

Talk about taking the high road. Since last Friday, Oct. 28, new political signs have started appearing around Wilton promoting the absolute antithesis of nasty partisan campaign politics.

The signs look very similar to other posted election notices supporting one candidate or another–they’re the same size, they’re even printed in red-white-and-blue with that patriotic waving flag graphic in the corner, and they say, “VOTE!”

But what’s different is that rather than promoting a person or candidate, these particular signs are advocating for kindness, something many people say has been forgotten about this election cycle.

“This is what the signs are about–a reminder that we have a community that values kindness and civics,” says the person who came up with the idea for the signs and had them produced. She asked that her identity not be disclosed as she wanted the story to be about the message, rather than the person who made the signs.

The other important message of the signs, says the person behind them, is to listen to one another, something she says we seem to have stopped doing with this election.

“Part of the message of the signs is saying, ‘Let’s just back up and acknowledge one another.’ So many people’s concerns are being dismissed, and you don’t have to agree to listen to someone. That’s part of the polarization–people are dismissing a person’s views.”

She was inspired to create the signs after noticing this type of dismissive behavior on social media. She watched a video posted on Facebook of a woman who spoke about why she supported Donald Trump–and was upset with the response to the video from commenters.

“This woman spoke very articulately about the message and the vision that she believed Trump stood for. It was very heartfelt–it was about the vision she was supporting, not the candidate. Had it not been connected to Trump I think a lot of Americans could say they shared her concerns and her vision, yet the vitriol that followed in the comments was appalling to me. Her character was attacked and there was little acknowledgment of her concerns and perspective. I don’t happen to believe that Trump can deliver the vision she hopes for; however, I did not think her vision of what she wanted for this country was terrible or unreasonable.”

As she formulated the idea of the kindness signs, she asked some friends what they thought. They told her it was a good idea, so she had 100 signs printed. She paid for the printing herself with the help of one other friend, and then a handful of other people helped her start to distribute them around town. They’ve been placed in various high-traffic spots–including the Wilton Library and several places along Rte. 7.

A big part of what motivated her is recognizing the kind of stress this election cycle has caused. The vitriol and rhetoric that has become so much more prevalent in this campaign is having a much different effect on people than in years past.

“When there’s language of threat being thrown around, what happens in our brain is that the ‘fight/flight’ response gets activated. When you’re in ‘fight/flight,’ you can’t listen, you can’t be kind, you can’t problem solve and you can’t think. And it’s stressful,” she says.

That’s why she believes both messages–kindness and listening–are crucial.

“Listening and acknowledgment are powerful. When followed by kindness, rather than threat and fear, they can go a long way toward helping people get out of self-protective fight/flight mode and into proactive, pro-social problem solving mode. The latter is what will help us keep our country great. Ramping up fear keeps the brain in fight/flight and all the brain does well in fight/flight is fight/flee/freeze. Access to learning, problem solving, kindness, etc. is largely cut off. This state works well in an imminent life-threatening emergency but gets in the way in almost every other situation. Listening and acknowledgment can help the brain begin to reset out of fight/flight. It is connecting. It opens the door to kindness and the ability to problem solve. That’s why the signs says, ‘Listen’ followed by ‘Be Kind.’”

As a long-time, 20-year resident of Wilton, she says she sees the kind of damage not following the signs’ message can cause, and she wants to make sure her fellow residents remember that we will all still be together long after the election is over.

“We’ve got to live with one another. We live in a community where we value kindness, where we value respect. That’s really what I want it to be about. It’s what our community needs to heal from all this negativity.”