Tag, you're it. Are we playing the age-old game where kids chase each other with increasingly louder shrieks? No, not by a long shot, although there are shrieks involved.
No, the latest games of tag are played with a spray can of paint and the cover of night.
So-called artists, overgrown children who never got over crayoning mom and dad's front hall, leave their calling card - ugly, bloated letters, some legible, some not.
"Artists" is a word we use hesitantly. Real artists seek to beautify their surroundings, not abase someone else's. Artists are people who enhance the space they occupy. True artists do not inflict their point of view on others, but rather they share it in socially acceptable ways.
However, those in our community who leave their calling cards on others' belongings, much the same as a male dog leaves his calling card, do consider themselves artists. And just as the dog's spray offends certain people, so too do the frequently vulgar sexual references left on store walls for all to see and read.
Perhaps there is a reason these people have to use Coast Reporter coin-boxes or the walls of local buildings. Perhaps they are too poor to afford art supplies or perhaps they're just too disrespectful of other peoples' property to care.
But if they are reasonable, respectful people wanting only a place to show the world their interpretation of art, may we humbly suggest they begin with their parents' walls, fences or cars.
Their parents may enjoy continuing the clean-up job they began when these "artists" first exhibited their craft. In the meantime, please spare us the expense. We are tired of dishing out the cash to rid our premises of their cigar-shaped words. And as anyone who has ever had the bad fortune to have their premises so ungainly decorated can tell you, we're also tired of the elbow grease needed to get rid of the mess.
Tag's a game for children. Grow up.
