District residents who make the occasional jaunt out to the Maryland suburbs via 16th Street or Georgia Avenue know the Beltway Amoco quite well. The gas station’s sign often spouts religious themes and messages. “When I put God up there, I get some comments,” says owner Laura Heenan. But Heenan got a lot more mileage out of her decision to put up a huge Bush/Cheney sign. “Never would I have predicted that, because we have chosen to publicly display our choice in the forthcoming election, we would be verbally assaulted and in some cases physically challenged by many customers,” Heenan wrote to the Takoma Park Gazette. She claims that some patrons came in “cussing” and a few others violently assaulted gas pumps. “My husband was cussed out by somebody who said he was a pastor,” Heenan adds. “He called [my husband] a redneck cracker.” —Elissa Silverman

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