Senior Prank
We all know what vandalism is. I was the Dean of Students, the “discipline guy” at a public high school. Vandalism drove me crazy: damaged lockers, trashed restrooms, “tagged” walls, scratched cars, and aimlessly destroyed equipment. It just seemed like such a waste of energy and time. My time, running down the vandals themselves. And their time, by not putting their destructive efforts towards something more positive.
But before my Dean of Students “stint”, I was a senior government teacher. One of my undocumented duties was to advise the Seniors about their “Senior Prank”. We wanted them to have an outlet, to channel whatever they did into harmless and non-damaging actions. Have fun but don’t wreck the school was the mantra. So when they wanted to build a slip-and-slide down the main hall – that was funny. When they built a wooden wall dividing the building in half – that was OK (but came down fast). When they filled the entire front lobby with Styrofoam cups of water, that was awesome. And then there was the greased pig let loose after first period…
But when some determined to pour giant jugs of vegetable oil on the hallway floors, that was too far. And the inevitable, “let’s put crickets in the ventilation system”, or “let’s put super glue in the locks” came out, my job was to squash the idea. It wasn’t hard: arrest, fines, failure to graduate all were potential outcomes of going “crazy”.
So the night of Senior Prank was always nerve wracking for me, skirting the edge of vandalism. Becoming Dean of Students was kind of a relief. I couldn’t be on both sides of the issue anymore.
Wanton Destruction
But most of the common vandalism was aimless destruction for nothing more than the pleasure of doing it. Other times it was targeted: at another student, or a teacher, or a program. Those acts were an expression of frustration and dislike. That was no justification for the damage, but it did at least make some wayward sense.
When we could catch the vandals, we demanded both punishment and restitution. Sometimes it was “in house”, a school suspension and a bill. For more serious acts, we involved the local police. When kids trashed the school buses, smashing windows and flattening tires, they ended up in County Juvenile Court, and they, and their parents, paid for the thousands of dollars in damages.
The word Vandal comes from a Germanic Tribe around the time of the decline of the Western Roman Empire (300-600 AD). They were pushed around by the Romans, the Goths, the Franks, the Huns, and other tribes of Europe; so much so, the entire tribe migrated across Europe, over the Strait of Gibraltar, and into Northern Africa. There they consolidated in Carthage, and crossed the Mediterranean to attack the Romans. In one attack (455 AD) they actually “sacked” Rome, thus giving their name to our language today: vandalism.
The Trump Administration
I can’t think of a more appropriate word for the actions of the Trump Administration then vandalism. They have trashed the Federal Government, like a High School senior prank gone far awry. There are so many examples it’s difficult to categorize – but here’s a few:
- The DOGE ransack of the Federal computer systems, including the IRS and Medicare
- Pete Hegseth’s wanton destruction of the command structure of the military
- The random removal of protections for endangered species, including: Northern Spotted Owls, Florida Panthers, Atlantic and Chinook Salmons, Florida Manatees, Whooping Cranes, Desert Tortoises, Wolverines, Sea Turtles, Rice’s Whales, and soon, Gray and Mexican Wolves.
- Selling off American protected lands for industrial mining and drilling
- The “purge” of the FBI, including over 1100 agents and hundreds of other personnel.
White House
And there is the ongoing obvious vandalism of our Nation’s Capital. The White House (the People’s House) has by Presidential edict been trashed. The walls are festooned with gilt-gold. The corridors are used as a walk of fame and shame of former Presidents. The East Wing, one of the two modest additions to the original building developed for more space while maintaining attention on the main structure, is destroyed.
Instead it will be replaced by a giant ballroom, dwarfing the modest “People’s House” that fit the character that the Founding Fathers’ wanted for our Executive leader. Instead, we are emulating the exact kind of government we declared independence from in 1776, a royal sovereign with nearly unlimited powers. This visual transformation of the American balance of power was done by executive fiat, with billions of taxpayers’ dollars, our dollars, picking up the tab, in spite of the claim that donations would pay.
Kennedy Center
Next, President Trump is threatening to physically destroy a center of American culture, the Kennedy Center. This modern complex has been in the forefront of music, theater, and culture; exactly the kind of honor both President and Mrs. Kennedy tried to bring to Washington in their lifetimes. It is no accident that President Trump can’t stand the historic contrast between Kennedy’s grace and his own slovenliness. He led a coup-d’etat of the center’s leadership. That led to the decimation of the center’s performance schedule. Then he literally placed his name on Kennedy’s memorial.
When a Federal Court ordered him to take his name off, he led the way to bankrupt the place. Now in Court documents, he literally said either name it for me, or I’ll tear it down. That’s targeted vandalism, clear and simple.
Arch de Trump
Washington, DC, has always been a carefully balanced and orchestrated place. The streets were carefully laid out, radiating from the Federal triangle. The height of structures are limited, with the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building standing out above the city. And that relationship has been cherished. When Robert E. Lee’s property was seized in the Civil War, it became our national military cemetery. The rows of monuments stood in clear view of the city, and particularly of the Lincoln Memorial. It was the men who died for the Union buried at one end of the Memorial Bridge and the Memorial to the President that led them on the other.
Now President Trump is attempting to erect a huge “Triumphal Arch” in the middle of that relationship, overshadowing both Lincoln and our honored dead. It’s not by accident that he picked that exact spot. After all, he’s called our war dead “suckers and losers”, and like Napoleon, wants the biggest monument in Washington to be for himself.
Trump is remaking Washington in his own image, by executive order, with wanton disregard for the balances of power that made our Nation what it is. He would call it beautification, but we all know what it really is: vandalism.
