Graffiti

For some, graffiti is an attempt to break the separation between an impersonal urban landscape and the vibrancy of life. It is a very literal assertion of the value of creativity over the sanctity of property, a visual declaration of the will to live. Politicians, from positions of unchecked power, simplistically assert that graffiti is “wrong”. They attempt to coerce their constituency into assimilating their morality, as if “right” and “wrong” really are objective terms. For writers, the world isn’t so black and white. Why, asks the writer, can’t the dead walls of our city become the canvases of our aspirations?