Had. Past tense. The reasons for its removal are two.

My supervisor was the first to object, basically handing down the edict that I wouldn’t be allowed to bring the laptop (on which I do 99% of my work) to any meetings if the sticker remained. Considering at least two of my coworkers are religion-soaked god-botherers who don’t hesitate to share their religious views with any who will tolerate them, this seemed, if you’ll accept a mild understatement, extremely hypocritical. The hypocrisy is all the more obnoxious when you realize that I work for a government agency, theoretically under the restrictions of the First (and Fourteenth) Amendment.

The sticker itself was printed on Office Depot bumper sticker paper, which is easily peeled off and repositioned. So I ‘repositioned’ it from the laptop to the wall of my office. This was generally considered acceptable; they apparently don’t mind me holding my beliefs (or lack thereof), only being uppity enough to remind the Christaliban that there are people who disagree with them.

But that’s not why I took it entirely down.

One of my coworkers (and a friend I knew before I started working there) is a devout Muslim. He pointed out that the sticker was, in his eyes and the eyes of those attending his mosque, an endorsement of hatred. And after reflecting on it a bit, I realized I agreed with him. Some small-minded xenophobes could take that as an attack, not on religion in general, but specifically on Islam… and specifically endorsing violence. That’s not the message I want to send.

I’m not ‘shying away’ from criticizing Islam because I agree with it, and not because I somehow think it’s ‘better’ than Christianity or Judaism or Buddhism or Hinduism. I most certainly don’t. Islam is the religion most easily corrupted into fundamentalism and hatred, and it easily ranks among the worst in terms of widespread abuse. And I certainly didn’t take it down due to fear of a fatwa death sentence. I took down the sticker because Muslims in the US are already suffering persecution (and I mean honest persecution, not the “waaah, someone said something mean about us” sense that many Christians profess), and the last thing I want to do is give the right-wing mouth-breathing god-wallopers another excuse to commit violence against the innocent.

As you can see, my name is clearly attached to whatever I write. I have no plans to blog under a pseudonym. Frankly, most of what I write is only interesting if you know who I am. I don’t specify exactly where I work, although most people who know me already know that. I also don’t include coworkers’ names. I do this so that someone searching for a coworker won’t find what I have to say about them.

I also have no plans to stop blogging, or Twittering, altogether. Life would be too boring. But I do need to learn how to see a post the way others will. One of my coworkers pointed out today that while he could understand what I meant, he also could understand what would be considered offensive.

So my first course of action is clear: I’m going to revise the articles that led to offense, clearing up their intent. And I hope that’ll be enough.

The answer was no, and he invited me to send him a résumé.

My reaction was mixed. First was elation: holy crap, this guy actually thinks I might have a shot at working there! That was short-lived, however, as my loyalty and my anxiety simultaneously kicked in: not only would I have to quit my current job, I’d have to move about two hours away.

That’s really what I’m concerned about. I don’t particularly mind the thought of leaving my current job. It’s clear that I’m not a perfect match for my current employer. I rock the boat too much. But leaving the friends I’ve made here would be difficult. Hell, my dad lives about 45 minutes away and I only see him a couple of times per month. I can’t see driving 2 hours each way to visit Bartow, particularly with practically nothing else to lure me back. Also, with the hiring freeze in effect, it’s likely that they wouldn’t hire anybody to replace me, increasing the workload on everyone else.

The other issue is that this place feels like home now. I live in an apartment, but it’s home. Not to mention the hassle involved in moving. (I just bought a washer and dryer, for cryin’ out loud!) There’s no way I’m going to haul my furniture—in particular, my heavy-ass desks—down the stairs and into a new place by myself.

So, there’s a lot of inertia keeping me here. What’s driving me toward Ocala?

Primarily, the reason I’m considering accepting a job with the aforementioned company in Ocala if offered is simple: they seem to get it. I work for a large government agency, and even with a small department, it’s nearly impossible to change as fast as modern software development requires. Besides, I’ve met the guy who told me about the place (the one I follow on Twitter) and he seems to be someone I’d get along with. And needless to say, I could learn a lot about TDD and other agile practices, and programming in general, from him.

Just to be clear: I haven’t been offered a job yet. I haven’t interviewed for a job yet. I don’t even know if a job’s even open. But the idea is still there. And the same applies anywhere in the country; in fact, even more so, since a two-hour drive would be replaced with an airline flight. If I don’t live near either of my parents, I could just as easily live anywhere in the country. The question is whether I want to do so. And I genuinely don’t know.