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Lindsay Metcalf
on May 22 2013 - 06:00 AM
When that tornado siren sounds, I'm in the basement
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mara williams
on May 21 2013 - 06:00 AM
Summer break has this mom on a house upkeep war path.
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I love graffiti. I always have. I don't mean your average gang tag or property defacement, no. I'm talking about cute or funny scrawlings on bar bathroom stalls, carefully placed artwork on the table at the coffee shop, wanna be murals, and guerilla Banksey-style street art done in a flash by the light of the moon.
So when I saw "YOU ARE LOVED" spelled out in clear plastic cups on a fence over a walkway while driving down Southwest Trafficway a few weeks ago, I smiled. It wasn't graffiti, necessarily. Maybe it wasn't good for the environment, either. But I'm sure it wasn't legal. I was all alone in the car, so I didn't have anyone to squeal about it too. But I smiled, ear to ear. It could've been an art student, or a high school student, or just someone that doesn't want you to forget that you are loved.
In a world where people can be so mean to each other, it really made me feel glad to know that someone, somewhere, wanted to share a sweet message like that. The next time the kids were in the car with me and we drove that way, I made sure to point it out. Lotte can't read, and Marc didn't care of course. Still, I was refreshed when I saw it the first time. Heck, the fifth time! It seems like I can't open a browser on my computer without seeing some kind of nastiness spewed from one group to another about gun control, religion, racism, or women's rights. I feel strongly on issues, too, but it gets to be a little much sometimes.
Then, one day, as I was driving home from the coffee shop, I noticed that the message had changed. It was subtle, but oh, was it noticable.
"YOU ARE GAY", it said, in it's rearranged clear plastic cups. My heart hurt. The message was clear: You, touchy-feely fella or gal who wanted each person driving under the overpass to know they were loved; you, sir or madam, are gay.
Okay, yeah yeah. I know. "Gay" also means "happy". But c'mon. You know people don't use it like that anymore. We all know what the world "gay" means in 2013.
It means girly. Or feminine when you're supposed to be masculine, rather. Sometimes it means stupid, or trashy, or lame. It also means wrong. It means messed-up. It means unacceptable.
It also means homosexual. And the fact that the word "gay" has become synonymous with all those negative words I just listed makes me more than sad. Kind of devastated, actually.
So what the vandal that vandalized the vandalism meant was that the original vandal is sissy-boy or a girly-girl for wanting people to know that they are loved. They also meant that being gay is unacceptable by using it to tell the original vandal that they are unacceptable.
That, my friends, is what's unacceptable. I had half a mind to pull over and put the cups back in their original order myself. Except that I didn't have to. The next time I drove that way, someone had put them back. The original message is still there, if not a little warped from all the moving around.
And now it's acceptable again! As awesome as it was that the message was put there in the first place, it's extra awesome that it's been replaced! What's more is that clearly the authorities are alright with this or it would have been taken down by now.
Sometimes I'm nervous that my kids live in a world with so much hatred and violence. I worry that they'll get sucked in, or that they'll be victimes of it. But sometimes I'm glad they live in a world where people sneak out in the middle of the night to leave love notes for the masses. I don't want them growing up to be insensitive jerks using offensive words without even knowing what they mean. But I DO want them growing up to knowing that love always trumps hate. And that's what they'll learn, because I'm their mom and I'll teach them just that.
I think the message is still up there. If you want to see it for yourself, it's on Southwest Trafficway going north just before you get on I-35. Feel loved yet?
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