In the grand scheme of things, it's not that major. But I find myself infuriated nonetheless by the word "Hero."
We ought to call it what it is: vandalism. And the offender is in reality stealing something as surely as if he carted it away.The problem is, it's written on the narrow slats of the fence in front of my house by what appears to be an indelible black Sharpie clutched firmly in the hands of a brat.Over the last two years, he's had to endure endless assaults on the vinyl fence. In the beginning, he responded by vigorously, if somewhat hopelessly, scrubbing at the offending epithets, pretty much to no avail.When we bought our house, we put a short vinyl fence up front with openings through which the flowers peek, simply because we liked it. It was too small to keep the world out, and that was never the intent. It was to be a pleasant place for the flowers to bloom as it stretched across our property line.But I have my own thoughts on what I'd like to see happen to the folks who've been trashing my neighborhood."Tagging" is such a benign word. It sounds like something you do at Christmas because you want to make sure everyone gets something that will bring pleasure. Or a childhood game that involves running and squealing (actually, that's probably a pretty good description of what does happen when junior thugs paint obscenities on other people's fences).Vandalism, it turns out, is very personal. And the punishment should be, too.Then, I'd like the offender to sit down and explain the vandalism's "why" to the man and listen to his story -- how his wife battled cancer and he worked two and sometimes three jobs so they could pay for that and afford a nice house with a fence that let her go outside and get some sun in a somewhat private setting while she recuperates.One guy in our neighborhood attracts far more than his fair share of the negative attention. His only crime is owning a lovely large yard and an ample fence on which to practice spelling very short and unimaginative words.Deseret News staff writer Lois M. Collins may be reached by email at lois@desnews.com. Follow her on Twitter at loisco.It turned out to be a wise choice for a lot of wrong reasons, not least of which is the fact that taggers are hyperactive in our neighborhood. They have even once or twice gone so far as to "sign" the massive foundation of some nearby townhouses. Our fence provides them very little space to play.I'd like to see the individual who is writing on my neighbor's fence be forced to clean it, even if it takes, as I suspect it would, practically forever. With everything we could throw at that word "Hero," we only got it to fade the tiniest bit. And that word was two inches tall. What they've done to my neighbor's expanse of fence is measured in feet, not inches.My girls and I felt sorry for him, so we spent one entirely miserable Saturday morning with scrubbers, paper towels, buckets of water and cleaning products. After a couple of hours, the only thing we'd managed to remove was the flesh on our hands.I watched with considerable interest television news reports of a Cottonwood Heights man who'd had enough and set up video surveillance to catch those who were breaking through his fence, basically destroying it a few panels at a time for their own amusement. And I was happy to hear they'd been identified and were going to be held accountable.
Deseret News staff writer Lois M. Collins may be reached by email at lois@desnews.com. Follow her on Twitter at loisco.
