Here’s your sign

Vandalism can’t erase community message

Murals have long been a part of the human experience and, certainly, the American landscape.

The messages on those brick canvases have ranged from thirst-inducing reminders of how refreshing a Coca-Cola might be to social justice images featuring heroic figures to more surreal popart images providing a glimpse into the artists’ colorful imagination.

Some are commercial. Some attempt to be unifying. Some are reflections on history.

Being art, murals can deliver direct messages to their viewers, inspire a chuckle or a smile or leave passersby scratching their heads and attempting to discern what the artist is trying to get at.

Most of them, painted by artists on buildings whose owners have commissioned the work or at the least approved it, add vigorous color to the communities they decorate.

That’s the difference between artistic expression that contributes to the community experience and “art” designed to detract from it, often referred to as graffiti.

People passing for the first time by one mural on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in south Fayetteville in recent days probably wondered what a strange and hopeless message the artist was trying to convey. “Love weakens us” the message read, with the word “weakens” on an dark background while “Love” and “us” stand out on the field of blue covering the rest of the wall. Closer inspection reveals the original words reflected a different message — Love unites us — but vandals chose to substitute their demoralizing phrase.

What’s worse is they “tagged” the building with an additional phrase that’s been used to promote the damnable message of white supremacy.

Obviously, love doesn’t always unite or artist Olivia Trimble, who originated the more uplifting mural, wouldn’t have to return and devote time, money and energy to restoring her message of unity, which is certainly more community-focused than the illegal markings added by misguided souls without the permission of the building’s owner.

Unfortunately, the real world has people who are the literal versions of Internet trolls, and they struck in south Fayetteville.

As if vandalism isn’t bad enough, the community is forced to read ignorant words that seek to divide, that lend support to that awful notion that one race has some sort of right beyond the rest of humankind. Far be it from us editorial writers to suggest unity demands a monolithic way of thinking — these pages are dedicated to the expression of many political differences — but this sad and ignorant idea of one race’s supremacy is simply trash to be taken to the curb as quickly as possible.

Thankfully, for every repugnant message a tiny minority attempts, forcefully, to inject into the community, there are many, many more people who stand ready to prove them wrong.

Maybe “Love unites us” sounds overly simplistic, but it’s a mural on the side of a building, not an international accord between nations. Still, it’s a simple message that promises a better future than anything the vandals have to offer.