Defacing highway with blue paint unacceptable

07.MAY.10

Editor: The Headmistress of the Girls’ High School (GHS), Mrs. Andrea Bowman, quite correctly and appropriately exercised her civic responsibility in drawing the public’s attention to plans to open a business with a bar license on Richmond Hill, in close proximity to a number of schools.{{more}} Her concern for the likely deleterious effects of the bar aspect of the business on the hundreds of students using that area – after hours or not – is to be commended.

I would have been happy if Mrs. Bowman had also exercised her civic responsibility in rejecting the proposal – by whomever it was made – to deface the Windward and Leeward highways in order to mark transfer points for a one-day GHS torch relay. Like many Vincentians on the Windward side, I was still enjoying the experience of driving on (largely) pristine roads, after suffering many months of traveling discomfort during the extended roadworks. The blatant disregard for the many thousands of daily travelers, displayed by the GHS and its centennial organizers, in spray-painting bright blue graffiti along the public roads for a single activity by a single school, no matter how many claim it as their alma mater, is nothing short of disgraceful.

There are many other non-permanent solutions that could have been used to indicate the transfer points. The GHS Headmistress and the centennial organizers should certainly have been able to find one.

Many voices are now calling for the issue of bars near schools to be addressed, as a matter of public interest. Will Ms. Bowman and the GHS take steps to rectify their unreasonable vandalization off public property, also in the public interest?

A. Moore