Jason Benell lives in Des Moines with his wife and two children. He is a combat veteran, former city council candidate, and president of Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers. This essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, The Odd Man Out.
Imagine you’re caught breaking out a window with a baseball bat at the local grocery store. You’ve done this before, both by accident and on purpose, depending on the day and your mood, and yet again, you’ve been caught. Bat in hand, you look up sheepishly as, rounding the corner you catch the gaze of your neighbor and their kids, the local grocer and proprietor, and worst of all, the local magistrate.
You’ve been busted. Again.
The group demands you explain yourself, astonished that you’d take a bat to a store window for as far as they can tell, no good reason. The property damage, the disturbance of the peace, and the threatening behavior have the now gathering townsfolk on edge and looking at you with suspicious. Now, you’ve been in this jam before, and you have an idea. It’s bold, but it is crazy enough that it just might work.
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