My Bête Noire

No, Kady, not that kind of bête noire.


My bête noire is graffiti.



Maybe it is because I live in an area of America that is dominated by two cultures that tolerate, if not embrace graffiti -- the African-American and the Hispanic.
Now, there are two types of graffiti: the art type and the tagging type.




The art type may be on places that accept or allow it, or on abandoned places. It is rarely inflicted on unwilling and caring places - there is too much work and cost only to have it Kilz-ed in the morning.


No, my bête noire is the gang type. The little squiggles or even wall sized murals that say this area belongs to this gang or group to the exclusion of all others including the owners of the building.
Our schools get hit with this a lot, particularly the illegal alien gangs 'La Raza', 18th Street, MS-13; although Crips and Folks are represented too. That little 'Star of David' means 'Folks' not a Jewish gang.
Now I am pretty certain that what we have is gang wanna-be teenage kids. But the gangs start with teenagers, so who can be sure? It has reached the point that a good percentage of the work of the school system's maintenance workers and custodians is painting over and erasing gang markers. This is especially true after weekends, holidays, and vacations.
Friday we returned after a particularly long Christmas break. The graffiti painters had not taken a Christmas break. Bobby, our painter and a prime fighter of graffiti, became all excited when I questioned him about how rough it was that day.
"At Meadowcreek (high school) it was a girl grafitti painter this time."
"How could you tell?"
"Because she painted 'Kill Whitney' a gun and a marijauna leaf ."
"Uh, Bobby, I think that is 'Kill Whitey' and that's you."

I guess gangs really are the bête noire in our society. Gangs are like a second Government running in the background. There are many people who have more loyalty to their gang than to our common government. If we don't do something fairly soon; we, traditional Americans, will be reduced to the status of just another gang.