And again...

[altivo]

Much too long a day for a Friday.

The most interesting event of the day? Someone noticed graffiti on the veteran's memorial (a group of engraved granite blocks around the base of the library flag pole) late this afternoon. We've had a previous incident, with spray paint, that caused quite a stir. It was successfully removed but not easily. This time, as it turns out, the large letters scrawled on the stone face were drawn with... crushed flowers. Someone had picked red begonia blossoms from the library's flower beds and used them to scrub lettering onto the granite. I'm sure it will scrub off with a brush and maybe a little bleach. As for why people do such things, I'm at a loss. I am no great respecter of the military and I don't engage in jingoism or even normal patriotism, but I would never deface a monument that is so important to other people, any more than I would burn a church or desecrate the contents.

It's sad, in a way, that the people whose feelings I am respecting in this matter do not have equal respect for my own ideas or feelings. Instead, they seem for the most part believe that it is their duty and privilege to force their own attitudes on everyone.

The heat is creeping back up, will probably be into the 90s by Sunday. The reprieve didn't last long at all. Oh well, at least the weekend is here and I should be able to snatch a few hours to do some things simply because I personally want to do them.

[Saturday morning edit: I shouldn't have written this when I was so tired. I left out important detail. The actual graffiti are kid scrawls. Initials and names, not political slogans. My concern is that a full-scale witch hunt is likely to be mounted to try to find the kids who did it, blowing the entire thing out of perspective. I would have quietly cleaned the stones and left it at that unless the incident is repeated, but it was decided to inform others of it which will get the jingoists of the VFW and so forth involved and can only lead to much misery.]

Comments

[lobowolf.livejournal.com]

I just don't get graffiti or vandalism; I completely fail to get the point. Is it fun to damage other people's property? Does it make somebody feel good to ruin something that belongs to someone else? The only statement it makes is "I'm a moron with nothing better to do."

I don't agree with the war in Iraq, but on an idividual basis, it's not as if the military sends you a post card and flowers and invites you to RSVP for the latest war, and people are putting their lives at risk to do their job. Ironic how the politicians always pull the strings from their safe, air conditioned offices on Capitol Hill and boss around the troops that are getting killed. It's always goes back to the politicians.

I feel the same about flag burning; by the very act of banning it, you're violating what the flag stands for, but I would never disrespect my country that way (even if I don't agree with what the politicians are doing).

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I agree in general with what you say here. I'd rather burn a politician than burn a flag, but I also object to the pseudo-religious attitudes that some people take toward flags. They are, after all, just pieces of cloth. It would be better if those people had similar respect for the values that flag is supposed to stand for. Those values include individual freedoms, tolerance for differences of opinion, and freedom to live one's life without constant privacy intrusions from the government.

The military is a very bad case of excess in the US. We have created a culture and an economy that almost forces young people into military service, from sheer desperation to get away from their parents and to have some kind of paying job and a place to live. Then once they are in, the brainwashing mechanism goes into effect and it does serious damage in my opinion. My father survived it during World War II but I know he agreed with my opinions on this. My two brothers both went through it too, and needed years to recover their common sense and judgement afterward. Unlike the situation in many families, especially in the South, my father not only respected but supported my rejection of the military as an option.

But my original post was not clear. I was fuzzy headed and going to bed. In this particular case, the graffiti are kid stuff. Names and initials. Not anti-military or political slogans, but just brainless scrawling placed in a particularly sensitive spot that is going to arouse some older males in the community to near apoplexy. For those older guys, those pieces of granite are more sacred than the black stone of Mecca is to the Muslims. And my point was that those attitudes are pretty silly. Yes, the kids who did this were stupid and thoughtless. But the witch hunt that will follow now to try to catch them is equally stupid and thoughtless. The library has a security camera that is trained on that memorial, and I know we will be asked to hand over the tape so it can be scrutinized...

[trail-horse.livejournal.com]

Not long ago, here in my local area, someone threw some sort of blood on the sign at the main gate of Vandenberg Air Force Base. I don't know why these people don't realize that it's not the military but the politicians who they should go after. The military only follows orders. They should also realize that without the strong military that we've always had, we would now be speaking German, Russian, or we'd be lampshades.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't quite agree with that last sentence. Yes, you're right up to a point that the military doesn't act alone, or at least that it should not. However, a lot has gone on in the last three major conflicts in which the US has engaged (by which I mean Vietnam, Persian Gulf, and now the Afghanistan-Iraq conflict) that leads me to the conclusion that there are indeed minds in the upper levels of the military who feel justified in doing anything, including lying to Congress and the public, in order to achieve the ends that they personally support regardless of the intent of the government or the people. I don't think this is a good thing at all. It's precisely the sort of situation that leads to military coups in banana republics.

However, as I told lobowolf above, my post was not clear enough in this case. The graffiti were kid scrawlings, not anti-military or political slogans, and my concern is that there will nonetheless be a witch hunt to try to find the stupid kids who did it. The jingoistic fervor of the VFW and Amvets knows no boundaries, and resembles more the madness of football fans than anything rational.

[trail-horse.livejournal.com]

I don't fully agree with your statements either except for the fact that there have been bad people in the leadership. We'll leave it at that.

[kildoo-lonewolf.livejournal.com]

I have notice that many people, when they don’t know much about something or when they are not sure of themselves, tend to use force and try to annihilate anything that might shakes their believes. There are also the ones that lack the conviction to stand by what they say and prefer to act in such a way that it can’t be link to them. In any case, I really think that theses people are really the ones that at the end feel the worse.
We can all see that people who are not really taking the time to think about what they are doing make these acts. First, they are hurting probably a great man who died a long time ago fighting for their rights and their freedoms. Second, what they did won’t change in any way the situation that they are supposed to protest against. Third, the cost of the cleaning will be paid by a public service (being time or products if not repairs), which means by everyone of the community including them. So at the end, they changed nothing and this will only limit more the resources of the community to better serve them.
We can only hope that they will understand that soon enough and find better way to express their discontent.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I didn't explain the situation clearly. The graffiti themselves are not political or anti-military. They are just initials and stuff, kids' work.

My concern is that the people who are overzealous in their patriotism will now start a witch hunt to find and punish the kids who did it, treating them the same as if they had desecrated graves or something. There is no perspective and no sense of scale when it comes to patriotism, and this offends me.

[hartree.livejournal.com]

Very often a "cause" (left, right, religious, secular, whatever) is an excuse to do something, rather than the reason for it.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

That's true. But often the cause becomes a single blinding light into which its devotees stare fixedly and unthinkingly like deer caught in a headlamp too. They do crazy things in a sort of mob psychology that they would never consider undertaking as individuals.

[pioneer11.livejournal.com]

Prolly a white kid wanting to have some way to rebel. Mom and
dad didn't provide the di riguer televison reason so he thought,

"I'll tag the memorial!"

Actually he prolly didn't think, this is why young lions need
old lions.

*facepaws*

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Bored kids getting a cheap thrill doing something naughty.

I see them every saturday night hanging around the price sign at the 24hr Mobil Servo. They don't have anything to do or the imagination or means to go out and do something. All rather sad really.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you're right. Unfortunately, because of the spot they picked this time, the hue and cry is tremendous.