Bombing or Art?

I ran into a young friend of mine recently. He's been living in Massachusetts for the last several years. Recently he was arrested for bombing all over the little towns near him. I've known him for years and he's been tagging for at least 10 of the years I've known him, first as a kid and then as a young man. His "work" is on train cars, under bridges and on walls. If you follow graffiti you will know his tag, "Limer". The local blogger where they caught him stated "We've been trying to get this guy for years...", erroneously assuming that my friend did all the big graffiti pieces in that town. Then the rest of the towns people speculated on gang affiliations, appropriate punishments and the insidious nature of graffiti itself.

This all reminded me that in the ancient city of Teotihuacan in what is now Mexico that murals were everywhere. The largest city in the Americas from 100 AD to 700 AD, while the Romans were perishing from lead in the water and all of western european culture was sliding into the dark ages this city of 8 square miles thrived and grew. Often called "The City of The Gods" it was built of volcanic rocks and every exposed surface was painted with brightly colored murals and drawings. The Pyramid of the Sun and The Pyramid of the Moon were no exceptions. To please the Gods, these early Americans, created images of animals and birds and flowers and even the gods themselves. What a sight to walk up the Avenue of the Dead and see the reds, blues, greens, yellows, etc...not a dull or boring wall in sight.

In Puerto Rico, especially in and around San Juan, there are many examples of public art. You can't walk half of a block without seeing a sculpture or mural. 500 years of history is revealed in the architecture and art that is so much a part of daily life there. No, PR doesn't have it's independence and maybe never will, but the culture of the people is kept alive through these artifacts.

My friend in Mass., is a talented artist. I have always thought that he was born to be that. Tagging is what appeals to him creatively, making public art for no fee, just to please the gods and hold on to his own culture.

April Fools, the joke's on us

$9,414,104,802,847...48..49..etc is our national debt, toting up faster than either you or I can count. This is the money we owe the Federal Reserve, the IMF, the World Bank which they in turn use to make all the war in the world. Now your government wants to give the Federal Reserve more power in the economy. Sure things are screwed up, but the Federal Reserve is controlled by a group of international banks that have effectively brought us to the current crisis, why give them more power to manipulate the marketplace?

I don't claim to understand the subtlety of big finance, but I do know that as long as we do not control the monetary system, the minting and distribution of money, that we have very little hope to turn that massive debt around.