Haters are Fans Too

Downtown Will Thrive Thanks to Community Cultural Festivals and Events

The tired whin­ing of some of Clark County’s most annoy­ing big­ots has fad­ed to lit­tle more than hate­ful whis­pers. Sure, the pen is might­i­er than the sword, but only if the nib is intact and the scribe wor­thy of his pub­lish­er. Last week, a local min­is­ter felt the need to whip up a let­ter to the edi­tor of the Winchester Sun, decry­ing this year’s Pride + Inclusion Festival. Despite being the human equiv­a­lent of the “Old Man Yells at Clouds” Simpsons meme, he felt the need to make his pal­try opin­ions heard yet again.

But is there any mer­it to his attack? Local busi­ness­es, offi­cials, and cit­i­zens say no.

While Downtown con­tin­ues with infra­struc­ture improve­ments, events like the Beer Cheese Festival, Daniel Boone Pioneer Festival, Winchester Pride + Inclusion Festival, and Winchester Farmers Market can breathe life into this cor­ri­dor as we await the removal of the last road cone. The author of that let­ter to the edi­tor may believe he speaks on behalf of an all-pow­er­ful omnipo­tence, but our neigh­bors are speak­ing up for them­selves and their busi­ness­es. Not only is his beg­ging and nag­ging of our com­mis­sion­ers unbe­com­ing, but it also stands in direct vio­la­tion of our Constitutional rights to a clear sep­a­ra­tion of church and state.

The beau­ty of these two insti­tu­tions rests in their sep­a­rate roles. There are com­mu­ni­ty func­tions best served by the church (ex: call to wor­ship, fel­low­ship, study of the Bible) and func­tions best served by the city (ex: event per­mits, pub­lic safe­ty, abid­ing by cod­i­fied law).

To sup­port the unfound­ed belief that any one man would not only speak for God, but deter­mine what pub­lic sec­u­lar events our city should or should not host, is heresy. While we are all enti­tled to prac­tice our belief struc­ture, no one must adhere to any­one else’s. That’s the beau­ty of American free­dom of, and from, reli­gion; it does not mat­ter if one per­son believes they are the most right.

I’d like to return to the tan­gi­ble world and dis­cuss the pos­i­tive impact of down­town fes­ti­vals. With a need for eco­nom­ic dri­vers in both the tourism and local busi­ness sec­tors, fes­ti­vals cre­ate opportunities.

Local antiques ven­dor Mason Rhodus of Mason on Main has, over the last decade, weath­ered more of these base­less attacks than most. He is the own­er of one of the most active busi­ness­es on Main Street, enter­tain­ing thou­sands with his social media cov­er­age of the fas­ci­nat­ing curiosi­ties his store holds. Almost every video includes a friend­ly sign-off, encour­ag­ing folks of all walks of life to come on down to Main Street. I took the time to ask Mason how fes­ti­vals and down­town hap­pen­ings affect his business.

“Events like Winchester Pride ben­e­fit busi­ness by mak­ing our Main Street acces­si­ble to all peo­ple,” Mason shared. He believes there’s obvi­ous mer­it to host­ing more cul­tur­al fes­ti­vals through­out the year, regard­less of what fringe ide­ol­o­gists may think.

So I asked him, “What impact is felt from mes­sag­ing like the minister’s let­ter? Does his sort of out­look deter peo­ple from vis­it­ing Winchester?”

Mason stat­ed things plainly.

“Having been on Main Street 10 years, I’ve tak­en a lot of hate­ful com­ments and been put on lists of places not to sup­port, and yet I’m still there doing my thing despite the efforts of hate­ful human beings. When a reli­gion dic­tates what is allowed in a com­mu­ni­ty, it’s just bul­ly­ing, and yes, it makes our com­mu­ni­ty seem unsafe to visit.”

Thanks to Mason and oth­er down­town busi­ness­es, we are see­ing clear sup­port for change and resis­tance to sit­u­a­tions like the unfair treat­ment and harass­ment expe­ri­enced by Crystal Coven Mystic Cottage.

The let­ter writer was quot­ed in an LEX 18 arti­cle about his role in the com­plete­ly asi­nine witch hunt as saying,“We’re not ask­ing her to change, we’re just sim­ply say­ing that we just felt like for tourist attrac­tions and things this was, we didn’t feel this was nec­es­sar­i­ly the way we want­ed our com­mu­ni­ty to be perceived.”

Again, he is proven dead wrong while try­ing to speak on behalf of folks whose inter­ests he does not rep­re­sent. Not only is Crystal Coven thriv­ing, they host­ed a Zen Den at their shop dur­ing Pride week­end and have had an increase in fol­low­ers and web traf­fic. Pride + Inclusion Fest brought folks vis­it­ing from Los Angeles, California, and Whitesburg, Kentucky. Two folks who had nev­er been to Winchester met on Main Street dur­ing Pride, one from Arizona and one from Minnesota. Without events that draw in out­siders, we wouldn’t have that sort of inter­ac­tion hap­pen­ing here.

Perhaps he doesn’t speak for God or tourism after all. It’s time to lis­ten to new voices.

So how do we quan­ti­fy this impact and build on it? According to state tourism num­bers, we’ve seen pop­u­la­tion growth and sub­se­quent par­tic­i­pa­tion in down­town events. Big growth.

I spoke with an actu­al pro­fes­sion­al, Whitney Leggett Bright, Director of Strategic Communications and Downtown Development. We dis­cussed just how impor­tant events are to the heart of our town.

“Most down­town busi­ness­es report fes­ti­val days are some of their high­est rev­enue days of the year,” Whitney said. “That is spe­cif­ic to the Beer Cheese and Pioneer Festival, but I think it would be safe to say that oth­er events host­ed down­town bol­ster small busi­ness­es as well.” Whitney shared as we looked into oppor­tu­ni­ties to cre­ate more impact and increase fes­tive activ­i­ties to meet the desires of most Winchester residents.

When I asked Crase Wilcoxson, Festival Director for the Winchester Pride + Inclusion Festival and founder of A Life Worth Celebrating, for his thoughts about the impact of his event, he shared his excite­ment for future events with a huge smile.

“We promised to have some­thing for every­one, and we deliv­ered. In our out­reach after the event, all of our ven­dors report­ed record-break­ing sales dur­ing the fes­ti­val! We’ve already had folks ask to sign up for next year’s festival!”

It’s odd to me that the local preacher/let­ter-writer would waste his time hyper-fix­at­ing on a recur­ring Depot Street fes­ti­val with 800 peo­ple in atten­dance, sup­port­ed by 68 spon­sors, ven­dors, and non­prof­its right here in Winchester. A dozen busi­ness­es in town opt­ed to pro­vide spe­cials, sales, and enter­tain­ment dur­ing Pride + Inclusion week­end as well, with many show­cas­ing sup­port in their dis­play win­dows. Does he plan to boy­cott most of Winchester’s store­fronts if we cel­e­brate St. Patrick’s Day or Latin Heritage next? It seems few shops would even notice if that were the case. Not only is he pas­sion­ate­ly incor­rect, but we will have even more oppor­tu­ni­ties for more cul­ture to thrive just on the horizon.

I do not under­stand the men­tal gym­nas­tics required to call one­self Christian while speak­ing so hate­ful­ly towards oth­er humans. Especially those work­ing to bring safe­ty, beau­ty, and peace to their com­mu­ni­ty. Then again, I feel con­fi­dent that I’m on the right side of his­to­ry. I have faith in our advance­ment as a human race that we will rise out of these dig­i­tal dark ages we seem to find our­selves in. The plat­forms for hate speech are with­er­ing away, and Winchester is bet­ter for it.

Doctor John Fryer, whom the preach­er felt the need to drag posthu­mous­ly, stood proud­ly by his work, bring­ing truth and peace to so many. What is the ben­e­fit of decry­ing a net good and a bea­con of hope hail­ing from our town? This behav­ior will not reestab­lish a per­cep­tion of con­trol via reli­gious dom­i­na­tion; it will just encour­age more and more peo­ple to move on and live in reality.

If we don’t col­lec­tive­ly grow past cod­dling these sorts of tantrums thrown by this preach­er and cronies, Winchester will lose its younger res­i­dents to places they see as more accept­ing and open to healthy change. That’s a major rea­son I left Versailles when I reached adult­hood. I know many Millennials who grew up with their own Temu hate preach­ers in their holler that would agree. We don’t want to put up with it, and we don’t read media sources that pub­lish hate speech.

While this piece may feel point­ed to some, I hope more and more folks will con­tin­ue to invest in our com­mu­ni­ty. By mov­ing beyond these tired antics and cen­ter­ing our suc­cess­es, we can breathe new life into our town. We can focus on restor­ing our con­nec­tions and trust in one anoth­er as we con­tin­ue to evolve beyond the tropes and stereo­types of small-town life.

We’re all liv­ing in Clark County togeth­er, so we might as well take the hon­or­able path and lead with self­less­ness and kind­ness, not blas­phe­mous self-indulgence.

Inclusion means build­ing a big­ger table, not a high­er fence. I hope those who would read his words (and mine) find peace. Know that no mat­ter your reli­gion, race, or iden­ti­ty, the good peo­ple of down­town Winchester wel­come you and future fes­ti­vals with open arms.