I didn’t realize how deeply I would be affected until I walked into my front yard and noticed that the LGBTQIA inclusive Pride flag I had hung to my garage was missing. I looked across my street to see that my neighbor’s Pride flag was also no longer visible.

Someone had apparently stolen our flags during the first week of June, which our community declared many decades ago as our national Pride Month.

I felt a sinking feeling deep in my stomach as if I had been punched. I crossed the street to ask my neighbor if she was aware of her missing flag, but since no one seemed at home, I crossed back slowly to my house, eyes lowered, holding back tears.

Yes, our Pride flags are only symbols, but what do they symbolize?: only our identities, our histories, our stories, our very lives.

I live in an economically modest, mostly working-class family neighborhood in a rural area of western Massachusetts. People of all ages from very young to elderly walk on the sidewalks, some using canes, some pushing baby strollers or walking hand-in-hand with young children, many walking dogs of all breeds. A man who rescued a baby squirrel often takes his pet out for a stroll on a leash and allows local children to feed it small nuts.

Our place of residence expresses many aspects of who we are: our style of architecture and design tastes, our financial level, and even our religious backgrounds and political affiliations.

Many of my neighbors exhibit statues of various sizes depicting the Virgin Mary on a blue half shell, and residents of one house fly a flag in their front yard of Mary holding the baby Jesus.

My neighbors next door placed a reclining garden gnome on a tree stump beside her Virgin Mary statue, while others hang tinkling wind chimes or small windmills that turn gently on breezy days.

“Old Glory” stands proudly on poles or porches on holidays throughout the spring, summer, and fall months. In addition to my Pride Flag, I have also displayed a “Black Lives Matter” banner.

Since Russia’s........

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