Running in Wichita Falls

So I traveled to Wichita Falls TX to hang out with my brother while he rides in the Hotter n Hell bike race. I'm not a bike rider so I initially registered for the half marathon on Sunday.  After reconsidering the steep drops and climbs on the bicycle course we were going to be running on I decided to not run it and focus on getting back to Little Rock in time to pick up Frisco.

So I did however manage to get in two really decent runs in Wichita Falls while I was there.  The first day, Friday morning I went out and found a really quaint subdivision behind the hotel.  I ran down the main frontage road to 82 until I met with a road that took me back into the neighborhoods.  The homes were newish, about late 90's all brick with enough variation in the architecture to not make them look cookie cutter.  There were sculptured bushes and manicured lawns, the streets were wide and flat which made for good running.  I worked myself into the south eastern corner of the neighborhood and I noticed one house had a two foot white cross made out of wood stuck in the ground in the mulch.  I was like "hmmm, that's strange..." .  I continued running and saw another white cross in another lawn.  My though was..." Well at least they are not on fire"...I continued to run and noticed that EVERY house on this street had white crosses stuck in the ground in front of the homes.

Now I don't know about you, but when I see this I think of 1) The KKK - cross burning, segregation, white hooded figures terrorizing their neighbors who happen to be a different color or religion from them.  and 2) Nazi Germany.  Christian/white dominance and discrimination.    When I saw streets lined with white crosses a streak of fear ran through me as if they were trying to intimidate.  It felt freak'n scary!  I felt like I was being told that only Christians live here and every body else better get the hell out or at least pretend to be Christian by sticking a cross outside your home, cause if you ain't got a cross in front of your home folks are gonna talk.

Discrimination comes in many forms.  While these folks with the crosses never probably out-right though of their crosses as coming across as hateful or discriminatory,  to a Hindu or Muslim family perhaps looking to purchase a home in that area, it is a clear and loud statement.  Christians Live Here...be warned...

I am not of any faith and I felt threatened, imagine how somebody feels who is of a different faith, one that is not of the cross bearers...

Perhaps they did know it was scary to outsiders, maybe there was a reason for the crosses and they wanted to make a subtle....ha...not so subtle statement.

From my limited knowledge of history, the Nazi movement began very subtly also.

What do you think?  I certainly did not run that way again  I got the heck out and did not go back.