The morning of Wednesday, Nov. 14 appeared to be just another day as two-year Pahrump resident Rebecca McCullough pulled out of her driveway to take her young children to school.
Once she was in the street, she noticed what she described as a very disturbing and unnerving sight, as a swastika symbol was drawn in chalk, on the asphalt, directly in front of her home.
The incident occurred along the 5200 block of Lignum Avenue in the Mountain Falls community.
“It was just my girls and I leaving the house on Wednesday morning and I was getting ready to take them to school,” McCullough said. “We all got in the car and I was pulling out of the driveway, and that’s when I stopped and noticed a swastika right in the middle of the road. It was directly in front of my home, just a few feet from my driveway. I had to look at it several times to actually see if what I was seeing was real. I was in disbelief and shock. It’s just crazy.”
Motivating factor?
It should also be noted that while McCullough is black, her husband is white, and neither is Jewish.
As a result of the discovery, McCullough said she called the Nye County Sheriff’s Office to report the incident, as the swastika symbol is the centerpiece of the Nazi flag, used by certain extremist groups to promote hate and intolerance.
“A deputy came out, he took a picture of it and he asked if I had seen who did it,” she said. “There really wasn’t much of anything he could do…”
“I could not imagine a grown man using chalk to draw a swastika on the street in front of my house,” she said. “I’m not sure if it was other kids in the neighborhood, or what. It could have been. I just don’t know.”
Won’t back down
As a multi-racial household with three young children, McCullough said she believes the swastika drawing in front of her residence was an act designed to intimidate her family.
“I’m shocked but I’m not intimidated whatsoever,” she said defiantly. “But I won’t act like nothing happened, and I won’t tolerate it. It doesn’t matter whether it was an adult or a kid because they need to know that bullying is not OK in any shape or form. This has never happened to us before.”
As fairly new residents of the Pahrump Valley, McCullough said the incident has slightly changed her opinion of the town.
“When we moved here, I was thinking this is going to be a great neighborhood with friendly and nice people, but when you see this, all of that goes out the window,” she said. “If the goal was intimidation by doing this in front of my home, they didn’t achieve it at all. It just tells us that they are troubled and possibly just even bored. I just want them to know that this is wrong. Since we have lived here I never thought this would happen in our neighborhood. In this community, there are a lot of nice and friendly people.”
Words of wisdom
Additionally, McCullough said the act has inspired her to teach her children more about the importance of respecting each and every human being, each and every day.
“We are lovable people and I always taught my girls how we should love and accept everybody,” she said. “I just wanted people in Pahrump to know what’s going on. This was not necessary. We are very kind and loving people. My kids don’t deserve this either. I had to explain to them what that was and why someone would do that. Even though it was not exactly on our property, but in front of our driveway, it still means something to me.”
A phone call to the Nye County Sheriff’s Office seeking comment on the incident was not returned by press time.
Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. Follow @sharrispvt on Twitter