I had hoped since I became a “civilian” who had retired from daily print journalism that I could place a bumper sticker on my vehicle and a sign in my front yard proclaiming my support for a presidential candidate.

Then I took on a freelance gig writing for a weekly newspaper company. So … my “civilian” days are over for the time being.

There’s another concern that I am a bit reluctant to divulge, but I will anyhow. It’s a concern over whether my stated preference for the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris ticket for president/vice president would attract vandals.

We happen to live in Trump Country, which is home to some extremely zealous admirers of the current president of the United States. I don’t begrudge them their zeal on behalf of their guy. I do begrudge how some of them might react to the other part of the country that favors the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

The last bumper sticker I put on my vehicle was in 1968, when Robert F. Kennedy ran for president. I wasn’t old enough to vote then, but I wanted my friends and neighbors in Oregon to know I wanted RFK to be elected president that year.

Fate, tragically, intervened.

I went into the Army that year. I came out in 1970. I enrolled in college and became involved in the 1972 campaign of George McGovern. I didn’t display a bumper sticker.

Then I went to work for newspapers. I stayed the course for nearly 37 years. During that time I adhered to the mostly unwritten rule that I shouldn’t reveal my political bias with a bumper sticker or a yard sign. Reporters are supposed to present the image of political neutrality.

So here we are, much farther down a long and winding road. I will honor the unwritten neutrality rule that reporters should follow for as long as I am reporting on the community to which I am assigned.

These are extremely contentious times, too. So I will protect my motor vehicle or my home from being damaged by those who disagree with my choice for president and vice president.