Tony Hates Butterflies? 

Saturday morning brought a firestorm on social media that ultimately fizzled down to just a puff, I guess.

According to the earliest posts, the owner of the building on Broadway, who has all the murals painted on his walls, had been forced to paint over several of them by order of the city Mayor Aikens/city council. The murals had been deemed graffiti. The two main murals that had been painted over were large butterflies.

The anger of the community grew as the day wore on including an online petition to restore the butterflies. Later in the day, the owner of the building took to his Facebook page, See below, to give an explanation, of sorts, to explain about the cover up/paint over and somehow I even got dragged into it. Sarah and I drove by there Saturday, as apparently did a lot of other people, just to see what the talk was about. Mr. Dalili happened to be there so I got out to speak to him and also show our support. Somehow that got turned into something entirely different. Our interaction lasted about thirty seconds. After introductions I just asked who told him he had to paint over the butterflies. He just said something about my website and just waved me off and walked away. Apparently, smiling and being friendly was a bad thing.

In his Facebook post, Sam Dalili, the property owner, seemed to lay blame more on some of his fellow downtown merchant owners. He went way out of his way to say that mayor Tony Aikens and councilwoman, Jennifer Wampler had nothing to do with the cover up/paint over.

At the end of the day, it's still unclear who told Mr. Dalili he had to paint over the butterflies. Whatever the case, the butterflies are gone but there's a lot of calls to restore them and even a gofundme account set up to raise money. There's also a new Cross mural being added.

I have a suggestion for what Mr. Dalili could do for his next mural that might keep him out of hot water with his fellow merchants and the city.

Facebook Page Post By Sam Dalili, building mural owner:

I wanted to thank all my dear friends in the Lenoir City community that have texted, called and even stopped by to show support for the unfortunate painting over of the beautiful Murals we had worked so hard to have artists paint.

I want to make it clear that the removal of the Murals had nothing to do with Mayor Tony Aikens, Jennifer Lauderdale Wampler or the city council. They called me this morning hurt and concerned about painting over of the murals. Each said if I would have reached out to them they would have immediately put a stop to it and stood up for the beautiful art we have created.

Six years ago my daughters and i went through really hard times and Mayor Aikens helped change my perspective from feeling like I was unable to care for my daughters to encouraging me and my girls to work hard through our struggles and overcome. My oldest is now attending UNC Chapel Hill with a 4.5 Gpa and 33 ACT. I will never forgot Jennifer Wampler visiting me on the one year anniversary of Harry Wampler’s death and saying as she stood at the grave, God put it in her heart to stop feeling sorry for herself and be there for my girls.

I’m working on a story that i will share with everyone about going through emotional abuse as a child all the way to how God brought my girls and i to Downtown Lenoir City. God helped us overcome seemingly impossible odds and I am eager to share our story of how the town of Lenoir City came together to help us as a family through those hard times. We had nothing to offer anyone during those days and never would imagine God would have helped us buy this beautiful second building in Downtown.

Our story will start at the Cross mural with the words “Sometimes God’s Blessings, Start with Suffering.” We have suffered but are blessed beyond our imagination a short time later. The suffering was a gift because we have learned to endure hardship and are better for it.

Let me address why the murals were painted over. Despite the support of the city leaders and community overall we have had an unfortunate three or four people torment my daughters and I. They have been critical of everything we have done from day one.

Benjamin Franklin wrote in his autobiography that in every endeavor there will be croakers. He said when he wanted to invest in America there was a croaker telling him America was on the decline and land wasn’t worth investing. I remember reading this as a child when we dealt with harsh criticism from a small group of merchants. I have tried communicating to them, helping them anyway I could, and even avoiding them when I realized there was nothing we could do to make them happy because they are trying to shine bright in downtown by blowing out our candles.

I have been criticized for the most humorous things. One told me I hurt the people of lenoir city because rents have increased from the businesses i helped bring to downtown. I was criticized the day i cut a dead tree down to paint the side of my building because “it’s so sad what I’ve done to downtown” I was criticized for having a Jennifer wampler sign on my storefront window because they texted me saying “Not everyone likes Jennifer wampler.” We all know that’s false because everyone loves Jennifer haha my youngest daughter was told she looked “horrible” and when I confronted the merchant she said no it’s a mixup I said “adorable” then I watched her tell my oldest daughter at a distance she needed to go to college implying she was dumb. She thought I wasn’t listening to her scoffing. I was told I didn’t need to help change their town and should be selling hot dogs on the road instead of investing in properties. I had a restaurant wanting to come downtown and they went and told the restaurant not to sign a lease with me at the new building because the old property I owned was half the rent (the new building cost me twice as much to renovate and a better corner location plus the other building was bought 6 years ago!) The worst was being criticized for putting a cross on the building asking me if I was going to put the “other gods” on the wall. I replied no because there is no other God. I told them If someone else wants to paint a cow for Baal or whatever their religion is on their building I wouldn’t be offended.

This week I was criticized for having games on the side of my building for families to enjoy and yesterday got a call that they are criticizing my murals. They tried asking the artists to do murals in other buildings in downtown so there is no way they were offended by them. They even asked me in the past for the artists numbers and one of the croakers even spoke directly to the professional muralists that painted my bear mural I had just gotten painted. They scared me with incorrect information through a friend I love and trust by saying I did not have a permit to paint the murals in downtown and they were considered signs so I could only have two!! This information was confirmed incorrect by the city officials after I got worried and painted over the murals.

The worst part of everything is this morning i was driving back from my daughter’s ice skating when Van Shaver pulled up with a HUGE smile. He was taking photos and so happy to see the destruction so he could stir things up on his toxic website. He asked me questions and I told him I looked at his website and he was very negative. His wife replied that’s because the city government is negative but I said they’re not true and he could use his platform for something good instead of posting only false negative things on his site. I mentioned how much the city has helped develop downtown and they wanted no part of that. He just snapped his photos and tried to stir the pot. Please question those who only criticize. Read my post about man in the arena and think about how difficult it must be for the city council to keep positive and work hard for a better town with croakers that don’t even live in our area. They are anti growth and use fear to gain popularity for themselves at the cost of keeping their towns undeveloped. What good is that and why would you follow someone like that like sheep?

I can 100% say that this City government has stood by our downtown. I have seen Mayor Aikens and Jennifer Wampler meet so many potential businesses before i was able to sign 9 leases. People give me credit without understanding the work the city has put into attracting those businesses. I have seen them stand by us and serve our downtown beyond imagination. I remember mentioning to Mayor Aikens after the fire hall grand opening how touched I was by his speech that he hoped the future generations beyond us understood the hard work that was put in to strengthen our towns foundation. The Mayor and city council are the glue that developed downtown. When other people doubted us they believed and worked to make this place the great place we enjoy today. Mayor Aikens answered his cell early mornings to late nights for years to make sure we gave downtown every opportunity to bring the businesses we have now.

Thank you for all who offered their love and support. This town has become our family and we thank God for our suffering because now we are stronger for it.

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7/10/23