By Chuck Woodbury
ROADSIDE JOURNAL
I was taught to be respectful of property — my own, my friends’ and nature’s. I also obey the laws with the exception of exceeding the speed limit at times (but not by much).
It makes me so angry to see what happened this last week in Red Rock Canyon, just outside Las Vegas. It’s a beautiful Bureau of Land Management area — the sandstone cliffs are spectacular and the Native American petroglyphs fascinating! If you have never been to the West and seen the red rock country (southern Utah is Ground Zero), you have missed something incredible, almost surreal.
So, when I heard about the creeps who recently plastered some of the cliffs in Red Rock Canyon with graffiti, it made my blood boil. What joy do they get from doing that? I don’t get it. I don’t. And, no matter how hard to I try to understand why someone would do it, I can’t. They’re bad, I know that much!
And, it’s not just the act of applying the graffiti, it’s the effort to remove it. Heather Fisher, President of the non-profit group “Save Red Rock,” told TV station KSNV that the cost to remove one panel “if there’s Native American artwork involved could be $30,000. If not, it’s less expensive, but it’s hard to get off, you have to use chemicals and try not to scrape off the natural desert varnish.”
If you by any chance have information about this incident, contact BLM law enforcement at (702) 293-8932 or (702) 293-8998. And if you see anyone else doing something like this, report them to the rangers or police.
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There are scum everywhere. So sad yet so prevalent in society today.
Agreed! So sad. So dumb!
I don’t understand why people think it’s ok to ruin the landscape for others. We have enough natural disasters to change the landscape without these stupid idiots adding to it. And it’s not just graffiti, its fires started and left to burn, its trashing a location, creating a road or campsite when there shouldn’t be one and the list goes on. What happened to the rights of others to not want to look at or deal with this?
aggravating. People just don’t respect our beautiful country and should be punished.
It is so sad to have to look at this garbage left by some super idiot! I was going to say bird-brain – but birds are pretty smart! I, like you Chuck, cannot figure these people out and I think about it every single day as several freight trains pass by! What is the point? Idle hands result in trouble? I think it is tho’tless moronic idle brains! And whoever did this had to carry a can(s) of spray paint – so it was definitely a planned event! Premeditated!
My heart hurts. Red Rock (and so many other places) is such a beautiful place and one that can’t be “re-built” by mankind. I always ask myself “what were they thinking? and “why?” I know I raised my children to love and respect all of the outdoors, so this type of behavior totally bewilders me. Did they grow up in a city and this is their way of identifying themselves? What’s in it for them? What do they get out of it? Why even come to a place like the canyon if they don’t enjoy it for what it is? So sad.
I’m sorry to say that this is the world we live in. Ten thousand people could pass that site, appreciate the beauty, and leave it in peace. It takes only one to ruin it for all the others, with no apology, no second thought, no conscience, no regard. And odds are, they’ll never be caught and even if they are, there’s another to come along. So the obvious answer, as usually resorted to by the authorities is to close it down, lock it up, forbid entry to all but the caretakers.
I lived in central Idaho where we have abundant hot springs, known to the locals. We’d go to soak and bathe on star-light nights. One weekend a group of beer-drinking louts found one, had a midnight party, and when leaving they threw all their beer bottles in the spring, smashing them against the rocks. It filled the spring with shards of glass. After all, they weren’t coming back, so why not? It was the fun thing to do.
That area is filled with ancient petroglyphs, I hope none of them were destroyed! We were there in March and enjoyed this beautiful area. While hiking we came across a family of 4 with two boys, the older boy picked up a rock and started to inscribe something in a rock face while the parents watched. I told him and the parents that it is not appropriate and is considered destruction of property and people walking the trails are not appreciative of it. The father rolled his eyes and the mother gave me the finger. In this case the apple fell very close to the tree.
maybe you could have found their car and inscribed with a key just what their kids did. And see if they would roll their eyes and stick up the finger.
It’s sad, but the only thing we can do is teach our children and grand children to preserve, defend and respect the lands, sites and history we all have around us. One could say of the ancient petroglyphs, “It was their graffiti”, but they were not trying to destroy something. They were (one must assume) leaving a message to future people. We are those people. Our children’s children’s children’s children will be those people.
It is said that when you post something on the internet it is forever. Admonish your grandchildren to express their thoughts that way, rather than to deface an aboriginal attempt for immortality.
Think of what you speak and how thost do speak it.
Old National Park saying: Let it never be said, and said to your shame, that all was beauty here before you came.
Bugs Bunny had a name for these folks. I didn’t realize as a child what it meant it when he called Marvin the Martian a Maroon.
The answer is severe penalties. I know most won’t be caught and punished but it is a deterrent. We have decriminalized a lot of so called property crimes. That’s a mistake
Graffiti applied to any property not belonging to the “artist” is, I think, one of the first signs of a society going downhill.