This past Saturday morning, Sept. 14, instead of getting ready for the Poolesville Day parade, my family and I spent the morning being interviewed by the Montgomery County Police. On Friday night, while my 14-year-old son was home alone, a person, or persons, entered and ransacked our garage. These anonymous faces also tried to take down the parade vehicle we had decorated earlier in the afternoon. I shudder to think what would have happened if my son had heard the perpetrators and went outside to investigate.
When we woke up the next morning, we soon realized that this attack was much more serious than a few campaign signs thrown around the garage. Our truck with my face and logo was legally parked in a Potomac village shopping center, with the owner’s express permission. The side of our vehicle was scrawled with obscenities that three pre-teen and teenage children should not have to see written across their mother’s face.
Most would think this destruction would be quite enough. Not so. The sides of two our personal vehicles were deeply scrawled upon with a key. “Stop the campaign” was largely and clearly written across the entire side of the car, not just one door. On the other car, they did not finish this sentence.
The investigating officer turned to me and asked, “What did you do to tick someone off so badly?” My answer was, “I don’t know, I haven’t been elected yet.”
One of my daughters once said to me, while I was running the Bush campaign in Montgomery County, that she could not understand why anyone wanted to run for office. “Mom, the minute you put your name in the hat, automatically 50 percent of the people like you and the other half hates you.”
The difference with this incident is that my attackers have given me no indication of why. Is it because I am a Republican? Or is it because I support the ICC? Or is it because my husband, as a member of the Washington Area Board of Trade, advocates a new river crossing? This last item I have repeatedly denounced, but there is an incredibly sexist contingent that insists that since I am John Kane’s wife, I must hold the same views. They must not be married or perhaps do not believe this is 2002, when a wife can have beliefs contrary to her husband’s.
The most frightening idea is that in Montgomery County, a bastion of education and supposedly open minds, people can be so cowardly. And that is what this is — the work of cowards.
If you disagree with a candidate, you should have an open dialogue. Breaking into someone’s home and destroying their property is and always will be the work of cowards. If your views are legitimate, then having an open discussion (not argument) would be in everyone’s best interest.
As for these criminals, you should know that your actions have backfired. When the Montgomery County Police find you, I will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. I have been faced with circumstances in my life, which were much more of a battle than the anonymous actions of a few cowards.
We did go to Poolesville Day and marched in the parade on Saturday. We will not “Stop the Campaign.” Find a weaker 40-year-old mother of three children to pick on. We are moving forward and intend to win on Nov. 5.
Mary D. Kane
Candidate, House of Delegates, District 15