A Hamilton County woman's political statement went viral when a candidate for state office admonished her on social media.
It split people along party lines in her small central Texas town...but on Thursday, she and city leaders have healed those wounds.
Marion Stanford got her controversial political sign back from Hamilton police today.
What made it so, controversial? It showed a GOP elephant with it's trunk up a girl's skirt.
Stanford says she painted it, because she got fed up with politicians taking advantage of people, women in particular.
"The sign was up for about a week. I heard a few beeps, a few honks, I don't know if it was pro or con or get that kid out of the road," exclaimed Stanford.
Then a candidate for state office in Texas called her out on social media, and her message got noticed all over.
Suddenly, Hamilton, Texas became the center of a growing political storm.
The story of the sign quickly went viral, The Dallas Morning News, The Washington Post, even the London Daily Mail all wrote stories about it. It almost became a symbol of the type of nasty politics sweeping the nation. But Stanford and city leaders said 'no.' They forged a compromise which set a rare, positive example.
Police got involved and asked for the sign, due to its adult nature, but rather than give orders, officers offered a compromise.
"Well the main thing that solved it was communication between the city and Ms. Stanford," said Police Chief Keith Madison.
And that communication started to calm the storm of controversy brewing over the sign, appropriate messages and free speech.
The two sides came to a consensus, without any hard feelings.
"We're tight-knit around here in this community and this kind of thing can drive a wedge between the community and the city leaders and the police department and we don't want that here," Madison explained.
And Stanford agrees. She says civilized people should be able to disagree, without letting it get nasty.
"There wasn't any need for it. There really wasn't. So are you proud of that? I'm happy because I still live here, but yeah, yeah, you know that's the way I was raised," she said.
And she hopes this new message of civility, gets just as far as her original message. Because she says, people get more done by talking, than yelling.
Ms. Stanford plans to offer the sign to a political group out of state to use as a potential fundraiser.
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