I couldn’t stop saying it. “Who does that?”
Rich and I were gazing at messages of hate taped to the front window of a restaurant I’ll call Ballistic Pizza. It felt like that moment in True Detective when they find the serial killer’s lair, lined with blurry photos and insane rants, and somebody gasps, “My God, he really is psycho!”
We were in Petaluma, CA, a peaceful little city that was once America’s poultry capital; today it’s famous for community spirit, including the annual Butter and Egg Day parade. It was Easter Sunday and a glorious spring morning, so everyone was heading into charming bistros and sidewalk cafés for brunch. But inside Ballistic Pizza, not a creature was stirring.
Outside, a woman was weeding the edge of the driveway that had sparked all the ranting. For 120 years it had provided a convenient shortcut to the next block, and not surprisingly, neighbors continued to stroll through, ignoring the “Stop” and “No Trespassing” signs. Occasionally their dogs peed on the wall. Shocking human and canine behavior, I know. But worth all the fuss? Really?
I briefly considered trying to interview the weeding woman, but that would have required venturing across the disputed territory, and I had no idea whether the situation might be escalating. Was she a gardener or a nutjob waiting for an excuse to photograph me for the wall of hate, zap me with a stun gun, and/or call the cops? After Rich’s brush with the law last week, I decided not to press my luck.
Now that I’m back in the USA, I’m noticing a definite uptick in the amount of tension, rage, and anxiety all around me — more than I’ve seen in the past, and way more than I experienced in Spain over the last six months — or ever. Some Americans are expressing their angst in temper tantrums and hissy fits. Madness is becoming the new normal.
Fortunately for humanity’s last shreds of sanity, plenty of people are holding on to their decency and finding ways to help one another. I spoke with one of those helpers this week: Poppy Granger, who arrived breathless at the coffee house where we’d arranged to meet.
“Sorry I’m late,” she said. “The medical building where I work was on lockdown for the last four hours.”
“Because…?”
“A shooting.” She shrugged. As a social worker and psychotherapist in Richmond, CA, she found such events almost routine. “I need a hug.”
Hugs completed, coffee collected, we sat down to talk about books.
Poppy moved to California in 1993, the summer she turned fourteen. “The world outside had fallen apart,” she said, “and my parents did not have a happy marriage. So the one place that was always safe in my house was reading books in our room. I learned how to read at a very early age, and I read a lot of books. I still read a couple of hundred books a year.”
In 2023 she heard about the “Don’t Say Gay” law and learned one Florida county had pulled 1600 books off library shelves. When CNN posted the list, she vowed to read them all. She’s still working on it.
For those who haven’t been following the skyrocketing censorship movement — which is understandable, as there’s LOTS going on these days — ultraconservative parents are on the warpath to prevent kids from reading about race, sex, or the viewpoints of uppity women. From 2021 to 2025 there were 22,820 book bans in American schools.
How does it work? An objection by one parent can get a book pulled from the school library and curriculum while everyone debates its merits. Even if the ban is lifted, parents may launch online attacks on anyone who recommends it. To keep their jobs and reputations, many teachers and librarians stop giving teens To Kill a Mockingbird and no longer suggest James and the Giant Peach to younger readers.
Utah, South Carolina, and Tennessee now have statewide “no read” lists. House Resolution 7661, which is up for a vote soon, wants to make such lists national. It would classify as “porn” any book that mentions adult nudity, gender identity, or (brace yourself) lewd dancing. Yikes! Can’t have kids discovering that! Such works of “porn” as Peter Pan and The Handmaid’s Tale could become illegal in all American schools.
Seeing this coming, Poppy launched The Blacklisted Bookshelf after winning one of those Little Free Libraries at a Rotary Club charity auction. She decided to buy second-hand banned books to fill it and left a notebook for people to request hard-to-find titles. Poppy got many thank you notes and requests; she fills as many as she can at her own expense. Over time she’s added libraries specializing in Spanish works, romance, fantasy, and children’s books — all banned, all given away free.
“I went online at 9:00 one night and said, ‘I’ll give a book to anyone who wants it, if you can’t get it in your area,’” she recalls. “I woke up the next morning and had 117,000 views and over 1000 people asking for books.” She set up a Go-Fund-Me to cover the shipping costs.
“And then came the government shut down. As a social worker in Richmond, I knew all of my patients’ SNAP benefits were ending, and so I put out an announcement saying I have enough funding to feed 150 families with bare minimum. And I’m pulling all my books and I’m turning the libraries into food pantries for the time being. Because I remember what it’s like not to have food. It sucks. When the government reopened, I went back to books, but that first Little Free Library still has food pantry stuff in it.”
That’s when the Golden State Warriors heard about Poppy and gave her their Impact Warrior Award, saying, “Whether fighting for literacy or tackling food insecurity, her compassion knows no bounds.”
I don’t often feel like a total slouch, but listening to Poppy, I began to wonder if I need to up my game. She is inspiring — the kind of good neighbor who gives me hope.
As for Ballistic Pizza Crackpot, here’s what some of his neighbors had to say about him on Reddit.
“He gave me a hard time for taking one extra napkin.”
“Creepy ass dude.”
“Seems like in the time it took to make one of these signs, he could have poured a pitcher of water on 100 dog pees. I guess everyone needs a passion. I suppose he is following his bliss.”
Well, that’s a charitable way to view it. As for me, I’m not wasting another minute thinking about Ballistic Pizza Crackpot. I have downloaded the list of 22,820 book bans, and I’m going to be far too busy reading to worry about who is peeing on anybody’s driveway.
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