On Friday afternoon, the 3 of us were driving to the Mall, and went past the mosque by my house (about a mile away). There were large groups of Muslims coming out, from Friday afternoon prayers. Also there, were cars that had stopped to lay flowers by their sign, which had been defaced that day by some idiot. The men were shaking hands and talking to the people putting out the flowers.
I asked Princess to slow down because I wanted to say something to them. I rolled down the window and a man came over to the window. I don't recall exactly what I said, but it was something like "we don't blame you." He was so sweet, and shook my hand.
When we drove back by, we had a large bouguet of gladiolas we had bought at Costco, and put it with the other flowers, and decided we should identify ourselves as having been the ones who left them, since the crowd was gone now. I put in one of my business cards, and Princess left a note.
We went to a movie that night, and came back to see if the flowers were still there, and there were some of the Muslim men guarding the place I think. We got out to check on the flowers and one came over to see what we wanted, (I was in my husband's BIG truck, so may have looked suspicious, and we are blonde so don't look like we belond there......) and I told him we had left flowers there earlier, and were concerned because we hadn't put them in water. Someone had brought a 5 gallon bucket of water, and all the cut flowers were in that bucket. He asked if we were neighbors and I said we were. He was so grateful for the love and support of the neighborhood.
I am very happy we did that. It felt good.
Marilyn (a.k.a. Mulan)