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conulyNot at the same time, and across the street from each other. One was there when I was a kid, the other was painted - by my brother-in-law, as it happens - sometime in my early adulthood.
And at two different points various cops went and threatened the building owners over those murals, which were, let me be clear, not remotely offensive unless you're absolutely trying to be offended, and the owners removed them in order to avoid the trouble. One had sci-fi towers. The other had a jellyfish. You really have to squint to find some sort of bad or anti-authority message in either of them.
And this is why I don't much like cops. I sometimes tell people it's because I was there right after Eric Garner was murdered, but no, that fact is why I don't trust cops. The murals are why I don't like them. Even criminal gangs would treat their local businesses with more respect than that. Or if they didn't, oh well, you don't expect them to.
Right now, a few blocks away, there's a mural up with two women and a rose and a dove. The women are supposed to be Israeli and Palestinian, judging from the color scheme. Every time I go to CVS I'm pleasantly surprised that it's still up, but then, even if anybody wants to start something I suppose it's not the sort of thing you paint because you're scared of a little intimidation. But the other reason I'm surprised is because I remember after 9/11, walking in the other direction, somebody had hung a bedsheet banner out their windows, "Nuke Them". And I had to go past that ugly thing just to get to school. It was like the bottom fell out of my stomach that day, and it didn't stop falling for months and months.
You know, between the 2000 election and 9/11 it feels like I've spent my entire adult life watching the world slip further right every single year, and watching authoritarianism gaining more ground, faster and faster. It feels like that because it is like that, and almost my entire adult life I've spent watching people my (current) age and older proclaiming how "shocked!" they are that things have "suddenly" gotten bad, and I just want to shake them. What have they been doing the past quarter century? Maybe they were too busy enthusiastically supporting the war in Afghanistan that now everybody pretends they knew was a bad idea all along to realize exactly what all else was going on around them. Probably it'd be more productive to shake Elon Musk, see if he drops any pocket change.
This has been rambly, but... I don't know. I had one of those non-dreams last night, woke up convinced that because I'd done something or forgotten to do something very important now my arms were about to fall off. Very weird thing to not-dream about and I haven't gone back to sleep yet.
And at two different points various cops went and threatened the building owners over those murals, which were, let me be clear, not remotely offensive unless you're absolutely trying to be offended, and the owners removed them in order to avoid the trouble. One had sci-fi towers. The other had a jellyfish. You really have to squint to find some sort of bad or anti-authority message in either of them.
And this is why I don't much like cops. I sometimes tell people it's because I was there right after Eric Garner was murdered, but no, that fact is why I don't trust cops. The murals are why I don't like them. Even criminal gangs would treat their local businesses with more respect than that. Or if they didn't, oh well, you don't expect them to.
Right now, a few blocks away, there's a mural up with two women and a rose and a dove. The women are supposed to be Israeli and Palestinian, judging from the color scheme. Every time I go to CVS I'm pleasantly surprised that it's still up, but then, even if anybody wants to start something I suppose it's not the sort of thing you paint because you're scared of a little intimidation. But the other reason I'm surprised is because I remember after 9/11, walking in the other direction, somebody had hung a bedsheet banner out their windows, "Nuke Them". And I had to go past that ugly thing just to get to school. It was like the bottom fell out of my stomach that day, and it didn't stop falling for months and months.
You know, between the 2000 election and 9/11 it feels like I've spent my entire adult life watching the world slip further right every single year, and watching authoritarianism gaining more ground, faster and faster. It feels like that because it is like that, and almost my entire adult life I've spent watching people my (current) age and older proclaiming how "shocked!" they are that things have "suddenly" gotten bad, and I just want to shake them. What have they been doing the past quarter century? Maybe they were too busy enthusiastically supporting the war in Afghanistan that now everybody pretends they knew was a bad idea all along to realize exactly what all else was going on around them. Probably it'd be more productive to shake Elon Musk, see if he drops any pocket change.
This has been rambly, but... I don't know. I had one of those non-dreams last night, woke up convinced that because I'd done something or forgotten to do something very important now my arms were about to fall off. Very weird thing to not-dream about and I haven't gone back to sleep yet.
