Lift graffiti

When we left our first temporary home at a friend's and moved into Marek's sister's empty apartment for what turned into a couple of weeks, I noticed a very unwelcome piece of graffiti in the lift.

Graffiti annoys me. Not the talented artistic kind particularly, but the childish scrawls that mark territory or assert opinions. It's messy and uncouth.

This was an anti-semitic piece of 'writing', illustrated by a star of David in a hangman's noose. It made me feel slightly sick and I tried rubbing it off with a finger, to no avail. I'm not Jewish, but I have a problem with any kind of sweeping negative statement like the one in that lift.

Each time I went up and down in the lift, I berated myself for having forgotten once again to bring any kind of cleaning supplies. It stayed for a couple of days and then someone a little less forgetful than me cleaned it off.

I was happy to see it gone, and then surprised when it was replaced with this:

All anti-semites are pitiful creatures with complexes, you are (backward?) too

Long live all races.

In theory I should deplore this wide statement, for its generalisations and crude lettering. Because I agree with the 'long live all races' sentiment though, I am inclined to forgive its unappealing method of communication.

It was allowed to stay a lot longer than the original anti-semitic writing.