I’m in my late 60s and should my kids ever lose their cable, their cell phones quit working, the writers and actors strike brings the entertainment world to a complete halt and there’s a solar flare up that shuts down the world’s electronics, there’s a chance they just might ask me to tell them what I did when I was young.

I’d have a bunch of great stories.

The reason they don’t ask that now is because they know I would never shut up. In my humble opinion, I have had a very fun, adventurous life, complete with all those standard-issue ups and downs. 

The ‘ups’ are many. Writing jokes and having Jay Leno tell them on “The Tonight Show”, standing up on stage in front of thousands of people at what was Safeco Park at the time for a “Race for the Cure” event. Being able to sit down and write songs with the late Stan Boreson for one of his Christmas albums. Doing 28-hour radiothons for the “Make a Wish” Foundation, getting to meet famous actors and sports heroes. Doing a morning radio show in Seattle live from Japan. And on and on….

Some of the downs include the things you learn while growing up. For whatever reason, when I was around 5, I remember stealing batteries from a store and to make sure my parents didn’t find them, I hid them behind the doors on the TV. (yes, our TV had doors) Why my undeveloped brain didn’t think that someday, they might just open those doors to turn on the TV in the near future was beyond me. I was taken back to the store to apologize and return the batteries.

One day while walking home from kindergarten, I thought a girl named Susie had cheeks that looked like peaches, so I bit into one. Her big brother threatened to “pound me”, so I learned at that tender age not to bite girls on the cheek.

It’s all part of the learning process. Younger minds like to see how far they can go, they test and if they go over the lines, punishment ensues. Over the years, you develop the skill of knowing where the line is, that there’s a right and a wrong, and that wrong always gets punished.

I bring this up because I believe we’re looking at a generation of kids that have coddled, over-protected and allowed to get away with things. So much that the results are the world you see out there today. A society without consequences.

Seattle, like so many major cities, has become a poster child for this emerging phenomenon. Tents, press-board shacks and dilapidated R.V.’s line the streets and neighborhoods suddenly find themselves the unwanted home of three groups: the down on their luck, the mentally challenged, and the drug-addicted.

However, that’s a blog for a different time. Homeless camps are actually disappearing in Seattle, as Mayor Harrell has become our first leader in years to actually do something concerning that issue. They’re all in need of our help but allowing them to live in filth and squalor is NOT a compassionate response.

But now, take a drive around our fair city and you’ll notice yet one more result of churning out of our out-of-control youth–Graffiti.

One of the local news stations led off their evening coverage last night with the plague that has run rampant in the Emerald City, especially on freeways. There was one case where a tagger used a state-owned machine to lift him up to tag an overpass, laughing it off with a video he posted online.

Graffiti, like so many other infractions against the laws we have on the books, is given a low priority by law enforcement. Understandable, since we went through a “police are evil” phase in recent years, we lost a bunch of good officers and for some reason now wonder why crime is more out of control than ever.

Let’s get one thing straight–graffiti can be considered art, but not when it damages someone else’s property, private (owned by an individual) or public (owned by you and me). That’s what they call ‘vandalism’ and there are laws. Just not ones that are enforced.

Let’s go to the case in point of what inspired this rant:

For over 100 years, the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle has showcased a proud, Nordic heritage. In a small, triangular park off of Market Street is a chunk of land designated as Bergen Place Park. Originally, it was the home of a hand-painted mural. Then, as the mural began to decay, it was replaced with a special graffiti-resistant material print at a cost to volunteers of $100,000.

Over recent years, there have been occasional bouts of graffiti, which volunteers removed as soon as it was noticed. So far, I’ve been down there twice this year, scrubbing away tags and various writings.
However, last week, someone took the time to write all over the lower white portion of it. Being Labor Day weekend, it was just too hard to try and rally troops to get it down as soon as possible.

My wife, who for years was the volunteer coordinator for the park, saw the graffiti, came home and stared blasting out emails to as many people as she can think of. She got various responses from “That’s terrible” to “Do you need help cleaning it up?” to “Well, the city attorney says it’s protected art.” I find that last one hard to believe.

So, I wrote to Mayor Harrell to see what he would have to say. Among my words:

I got an auto-response that pointed me in multiple directions. A fairly generic, “Thanks for writing email.” And that was the end of that.

Here are a couple of pictures of what these destructive punks did to the mural.

Until there comes a time where the city can either protect the mural or thoroughly prosecute those who do this kind of damage, I think it’s time to move the mural to a safer location. Perhaps the National Nordic Museum?

Otherwise, the graffiti will rinse and repeat, the volunteers will grow weary, and we’ll reach that stage where everybody just gives up and frankly, I don’t want to get there. At least, not without a fight.

If we normalize this kind of destructive behavior, much like we have with the rows of tents and junky RV’s, the city will just continue to decline. I don’t believe it has to be that way.

But maybe it does.

Tim Hunter