It’s been 89 days and counting since The Garden Island reported on the rash of handwritten no GMO symbols spray-painted on our roads. There’s an anti-GMO (genetically modified organism) message scrawled at the pedestrian crosswalk at Opaeka‘a Falls in Wailua,
It’s been 89 days and counting since The Garden Island reported on the rash of handwritten no GMO symbols spray-painted on our roads.
There’s an anti-GMO (genetically modified organism) message scrawled at the pedestrian crosswalk at Opaeka‘a Falls in Wailua, on the Kuhio Highway near Hanama‘ulu and the Kaumuali‘i Highway in Lihu‘e.
The issue here is twofold.
Certainly, there are strong feelings surrounding the production, consumption and labeling of GMOs.
And while we certainly encourage people to exercise their First Amendment rights, we don’t condone the destruction or defacing of public property (Here at TGI, we encourage you to send a Letter to the Editor).
It will be the taxpayer’s money that will be used to clean up the graffiti.
Graffiti has popped up more and more around the island — on the walls of the Coco Palms, on the rock wall and supporting cement foundation of the Wailua Bridge and at beach parks.
In February, graffiti vandals struck multiple times at the Waimea United Church of Christ, taunting “keep painting we keep coming back.”
Volunteers — such as members of the Philippine Island Hawaiian Island Cycling Club, who cleaned up the Hanama’ulu Beach Park pavilion, and members of the Waimea United Church of Christ, who painted over the taunting messages — have taken the initiative to remove graffiti in a timely fashion and shouldered the burden of paying for graffiti removal.
It’s done so the rest of the public can enjoy these areas.
Which brings us back to the GMO graffiti — where nearly three months later, the graffiti still persists.
The roads are maintained by the state Department of Transportation, and the agency is aware of the vandalism.
“Our procedure is to file a police report with Kaua‘i Police,” said Caroline Sluyter, public information officer with the state Department of Transportation, in the Feb. 22 article. “In general for graffiti on state DOT property we have our own crews paint over it, if at all possible.”
During a follow-up request, Sluyter said the department is planning to cover the graffiti during its next routine maintenance cycle.
She said the department’s priority is safety issues, and while we agree that removing spray-painted signs isn’t a matter of life or death, it would sure be nice to reduce this blight — 89 days isn’t nearly as quick as we would like it to be.
