Outdoor Sign Linking Obama, AIDS and Ebola Removed Just Hours After It Went Up — but Social Media Damage Was Already Done

The tiny town of Minden, Nebraska, calls itself "The Christmas City."

But it might be in store for less pleasant nicknames after a resident briefly posted an outdoor sign that one observer said was steeped in "hatred" and "vitriol."

The sign, posted on Monday, read “Aids Ebola Obama Thanks Africa.”

Image source: KHAS-TV

It was taken down just hours later, KHAS-TV reported.

Image source: KHAS-TV

But that was more than enough time for the image of the sign to spread across social media after a photo was taken of it.

“I got an email to the effect that it was creating quite a stir in the community," Mayor-elect Ted Griess told KHAS.

Image source: KHAS-TV

So Griess said he got a hold of the sign's owner and convinced the man to take it down.

“It was so large, and it was coming into the community alongside the highway, and as the mayor-to-be I didn't want that type of image to be portrayed in Minden, Nebraska," Griess told the station. "We’re called the Christmas City."

Image source: KHAS-TV

While sitting Mayor Roger Jones said he couldn't believe anybody would post such a "stupid" sign, he told KHAS it was "no big deal."

Residents also had mixed reactions.

"I’m stunned that America has come to this place where the hatred and the vitriol is so wide open now,” Bruce Lindstrom told the station.

But Dwayne Wilson emphasized that "everybody has the right to their own opinion, and if they would like to state it, there should be nothing wrong with that."

Lindstrom, however, told KHAS he didn't believe the the sign accurately reflected everybody's view: “The majority of Minden, I don't believe, would've put up a sign like that."