And again...
Aug. 4th, 2006 09:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altivoMuch 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.]
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.]
