I saw this graffiti in my neighborhood and was shocked. Well, I wasn’t so surprised that there was graffiti. There are a million kids in the neighborhood with nothing to do but go grabassing up and down the streets all day because school is out. I was mostly disturbed by the fact that what is supposed to be a “u” looks more like an “o.” What are the youth of today learning in school? It is a properly formed sentence, if you forgive either the penmanship or else the misspelling of the verb but you can really only forgive one of these two errors.
If the word is spelled correctly and someone just went a little crazy with the Sharpie, that’s fine, sentiments aside. If the penmanship is correct and that’s an “o” then these kids don’t know how to spell “fuck.” That’s a tragedy.
Arlington County, being the fine place it is, cleaned up the ART Bus sign in short order, so now I can read the bus timetable without getting flustered and embarrassed. I wish I could catch those little bastards in the act of vandalism, though, so I could give them a grammar lesson, or at least teach them how to spell.
The real messages I should be delivering here, specifically, “Don’t be hating,” or, “Don’t be vandalizing, you little turd,” would be completely lost on today’s youth, I am afraid. I think I will leave that to the families. Usually kids learn the really important lessons about these values at home, right? I thought so. If that’s true, maybe I should go preach to my neighbors a little about what they are teaching their kids.
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
