Technically, graffiti artists who decorate freight trains are desecrating private property. They work clandestinely and in the dark of night, and there's no telling what those fumes are doing to their downtrodden, inner-city lungs. But frankly, I see plenty of extremely long freight trains in Ray County (this one was technically just over the line in Clay) and you know what, they're extremely repetitive and, I'll guess, not all that loving to the environment. If you've seen one coal tender loaded to the gills with fossil fuel, you've seen them all. You've seen one freight stacked to an elephant's eye with containerized Chinese and Korean chotchkas and you've seen them all. I don't want to go all Occupy Wall Street on you and turn The Magic Commute into The Magic Manifesto, but I'd rather see a little art on the side of a train than a bunch of disposable crap headed for Walmart and Target and, ultimately, the landfill. There's some conformity to the graffiti-painter style, but at least when I look at it I see beauty not dollar signs and waste. |
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