Graffiti is valid form of expresssion

Editor, Asheville Global Report,

History first started being recorded when we began writing on the walls...now this essential form of communication is considered a crime. Only when our freedom of expression is limited and all of the walls claimed as property, do such things as graffiti vandalism occur. More serious issues such as homelessness, poverty, and police brutality, are being overlooked by a society more intent on locking up teenagers for self-expression than listening to the messages they are attempting to get across to the public. It is a shame that so many Americans would rather turn kids into criminals than actually listen to their points-of-view.

Vandals are often despised by the community, which has been persuaded by media attacks on graffiti, politicians bent on “cleaning up,” and other anti-graffiti propaganda. People are convinced that graffiti is dirty, gang-related, and/or a disgrace to their standard of living, which keeps them from recognizing the beauty of raw, spontaneous self-expression. Social repression of new art forms is nothing new, however the violence against graffiti artists that is becoming more prevalent every day should not be tolerated by any means. In New York, a young Afro graffiti artist named Michael Stewart was killed by eleven transit cops who caught him tagging a subway wall. None were convicted, because somehow the coroner lost the evidence. Another incident took the life of a young Puerto Rican in Los Angeles, who was caught in the act by a concerned citizen, and shot in the back trying to run. The guilty citizen, Walter Masters, was only convicted of illegal possession of a firearm and sentenced to 40 hours of graffiti cleanup. This is outrageous when we realize that graffiti is just an art form, not violent in any way, yet it sometimes results in brutal punishment or even death because of the vehement repression by society. Ironically the author viewed a graffito the other day that said “express, don’t repress,” which may be the real social issue at hand.

Much of the graffiti today, if looked at with an open mind, exposes the hidden side of our culture that has been denied by corporate and governmental control of mainstream media. Police harassment, racism, government corruption, and poverty are just some of the issues revealed by the truth on the walls. It seems logical then that the “powers that be” would attempt to eradicate all forms of graffiti, by any means possible.

Most damage is done to public property, such as trains and walls, which are mostly generic, standardized, and relatively colorless objects of the urban landscape. Rather than be forced to accept the gradual machination of modern life, many youths do what they can to maintain their humanity, which may include coloring their environment with graffiti.

A major topic of sociology today is the “McDonaldization” of society, how we are gradually moving towards a one-sided, highly rational, efficient system, where everyone performs daily duties like machines. The younger generation is revolting against this way of life and finding more ways to express their humanity, no matter what the cost. Imagination is something that no machine could ever match with its finite programming, and it is what makes us human.

Graffiti is the defining element of written history, dating back to the first human who picked up a rock and etched his/her name onto the cave wall. It is rather interesting to see a return to primitive elements as technology races along exponentially and these modern hieroglyphics should be celebrated rather than criminalized and abhorred. If graffiti continues to be regarded as trash and people insist on throwing artists in jail, humanity may suffer great consequences by rejecting the young imagination.

Ism Moonshine

Bele Chere and free speech

Editor, Asheville Global Report,

This is in regard to the article on Bele Chere restricting free speech.

I greatly appreciate the mention of the our conflict with Bele Chere of some years ago in the article by Clare Hanrahan. A clarification is in order and I hope you will pass it along to the writer. The Bele Chere vice-Chairman wanted me arrested for leafleting ON the perimeter and I DID press the matter there. The Bele Chere official backed down.

The writer is entirely correct about the 1981 US Supreme Court decision Heffron v. International Society for Krishna Consciousness. This case was about leafleting inside a state fairgrounds which is for the state fair. In no way could it be said to apply to the public sidewalk which is a traditional free speech forum.

Hopefully, someone in the future will call Bele Chere’s hand and settle the matter. Bele Chere will either back down or lose in court. I had hoped to leaflet Bele Chere again this year but I had family here from the west coast for two weeks before the event and that, and other ongoing conflicts with the City of Asheville took away what time I had to prepare.

Meredith E. Hunt
Life Advocates

I-26 Connector is a monster

Editor, Asheville Global Report,

Trying to make I-26 look pretty and be polite is like trying to dress Godzilla in a tux and tails. It’s a huge super highway plowing through a gem of a small city! Much of the quality of Asheville’s beautiful life will be destroyed no matter which routes we choose or how many lanes we make.

Even arrayed in diamonds and a Versace gown, our Godzilla will still be stomping thousands of West Asheville lives around. It’ll belch toxins from tens of thousands of vehicles into our already challenged, atmospherically inverted air. The cool, fresh summers of the land of the sky may degrade into three months of hot, internal combustion excrement.

A tidal wave of development will almost certainly accompany the highway, eclipsing every environmental gain we’ve fought for. New Super Wal-Marts and strip malls galore, factories and power stations smoking full bore, and a population increasing more and more may turn natural Asheville into an urban wasteland.

We all know this, but we’re willing to risk it. There’s no stopping the DOT, they say. At the recent I-26 planning conference, environmentalists and developers formed a startling alliance. Together they joyously announced that a huge and ever-increasing amount of pollution would soon be dumped in our air. The Citizen-Times applauded the workshop with three large articles lauding community-DOT cooperation. They twice quoted a DOT spokesperson as stating the alliance was “a breath of fresh air.” On the contrary, the meeting reeked of one of those cocktail parties where the host is quietly passing huge amounts of nasty gas, but the guests are too polite to howl in protest. It’s being shoved down our throats. Everyone I spoke to thought I-26 was a disaster but sighed, “It’s a done deal.”

I still believe that, if the route for the I-26 Connector was going to roar by Beaver Lake, ravage Kimberly’s genteel homes, and ruin Charlotte Street, Ashevillians would heroically rise up and stop the monster. We’d quickly discover that an expensive toll booth well north of Asheville could prevent Johnson City’s I-26 traffic from stacking up in our city. And with that supposed threat gone, the major purpose of this asphalt juggernaut would emerge from its smoggy hype. The road is being built to make more money for people already rolling in dough. And to humor a voracious US economy that’s only healthy while it flat out grows. But the main brunt of the disaster will land on West Asheville, so we’re all just letting it go.

So, is there anything left to do? After all, it’s only a done deal on paper. An alliance of Asheville environmentalists with blue collar West Asheville may have a chance to control the rampant growth merchants who rule our town. I-26 is the perfect opportunity to forge it. The same alliance gone national is a major hope for controlling the growth addicts that rule our country and the earth. It could start here. How glorious. Yet our major environmental leaders have all given glowing support to the highway. We could at least organize a community wake for the death of our magnificent climate and graceful way of life. Even if we can’t arouse an ounce of protest, people who love nature should NOT assist the DOT in ruining our ecology. If big developers have to massacre the mountains, let them butcher alone.

Hopefully this gloomy doom is silly and exaggerated. Maybe the best we can do is try to comb King Kong’s hair. Perhaps we’ll establish non-polluting transportation to compensate for the huge amount of added exhaust fumes, and strict zoning to prevent the waves of wasteful development. But what it seems is that either we stop I-26 or we should drop all pretense of mounting any Asheville environmental defense. A city first known for its climate of health may become known as a paradise lost in exchange for wealth. Any new fights for air quality may already be a sad old joke. All us proud ecologists may have to find another cause, for developers will only laugh at us, if we can see them through the smog.

We might ought to officially begin to wave goodbye to our serene and healthy quality of life, and say hello to the frenzied fog of something like Los Angeles. Let us praise Godzilla! And sadly realize what we already know: that LA is a great big freeway, but you can really breathe in San Jose.

Bill Branyon
Asheville