Stephanie Martin-Smith
Soul Purpose 

It seems even our small rural towns now are subject to gangs and graffiti. While reading about it in the paper a few things struck me. First, I wondered how effective having a gang would be in a small town. I mean, a certain part of the gang culture relies on anonymity and let’s face it; it’s hard not to be recognized in a small town.

I can hear the conversation now between two moms at the grocery store… “I know that Johnny has a great love for art, but would you mind having him come over and remove his graffiti from my property, I mean not that it isn’t good, it’s just that it doesn’t really match the rest of my décor…“
In the newspaper the police suggested that people who come across the graffiti be encouraged to clean it up as it may spark more “unsolicited artwork” which leads me to my second thought on the situation

I read in a book once about a study done in an American city that decided to take action on street car artists. Every night the trains would arrive at the station covered in graffiti and every night a team of workers would repaint the cars to their original state, day after day, week after week. Some of the graffiti would take days for these gangs to paint and some days, they would literally be crying watching their hard work covered over. Eventually they simply gave up.

The study also found that broken or boarded windows and unrepaired property brought more vandalism and crime to an area. Simple repairs and clean-up discouraged such behaviour -- or I suppose moved it elsewhere.

So the police are right in their suggestion that cleaning up the artwork really does work and it gives us a nicer looking community to boot!

Look at the mess that Barack Obama has just inherited in the U.S. and yet he arrived at the forefront with words of truth and encouragement. He is not blaming, but taking responsibility for the problems at hand. A broken economy, many broken communities, broken relationships with other countries and yet he speaks with words and phrases such as “repair,” “work towards” and “a better tomorrow.”

I was impressed that even his team seemed to be giving truthful, honest answers that they were actually thinking about. Not generic answers, Band-Aid solutions and quick fixes, but acknowledging and accepting that these are the issues our world faces today. These issues took awhile to get here and will take hard work and perseverance to repair.

I believe that it is worth the effort to improve our surroundings and that it can and will make a difference. Being a good and active member of a community is a good thing and all of the members of our society are valuable and have something to offer. We may just need to find new ways to redirect our creative youth in more “solicited” ways.

It may not happen overnight, but I must admit that on Jan. 21, after watching Barack speak to his country and to the world, I do believe things might change after all!