Coral graffiti
Coral graffiti
It is boredom and ego at work on the highway
It is quite obvious that all these do-gooder coral removers have nothing to do all day —a common problem on this island.
They have company though, some high school kids are the same way, nothing to do in the summer so they vandalize or race around in their cars. But it is clear these coral police are bored out of their minds.
To fill their mental void, they get in their trucks and head down to the highway and start loading up white rocks. It is done not out of a sense of community betterment, but out of simple, mind-numbing boredom.
There is another motivation here, ego gratification. They can turn their little rock collecting jaunts into a cause, a big reason to pat themselves on the back and be noticed. If this were not true, they would do their good deed and then quietly go on their merry way, knowing inside they helped Hawaii.
But no. Every one of the coral graffiti removers picks up the rocks and then runs on home and dashes off a letter to the editor bragging about his or her great exploits of saving the aina. ‘Hooray for me’ is what all their letters say.
The latest letter from a coral remover hints at this egotism as he told us his truck was named “‘Rosanante,” the name of the horse of Don Quixote, who was on a crazy crusade of his own, tilting at windmills.
The coral remover wants us to know he is not merely picking up coral but is on a high-minded quest to save Hawaii. Shall we applaud?
It really is a bit twisted, picking up rocks and then crowing about it to the world.
It is even more strange and hints at a real inner disorder, to realize the white rock collectors step over and ignore the real litter and trash along the road to gather the rocks.
There’s no glory in picking up an old beer can or paper. White coral, now there’s the prize. That can turn me into a real hero. Never mind that real litter of glass, beer cans and papers is a bigger blight than a few gentle sayings arranged in stones.
If there were no ego issues, no low self-esteem problems, no boredom, then all we would see would be a clean highway and no self-righteous, bragging letters in the paper.
Someone who truly cares about Hawaii’s beauty and is without a needy ego would simply get a black bag and clean the road. Aloha is humble and quiet, not loud and self-important.
Dennis Gregory
Kona