Vandalized moose a slap in the face

To the dirty dog(s) who ruined Coeur d’Alene’s moose:

What were you thinking when you vandalized those two painted moose on Northwest Boulevard on Monday morning? Surely it was too early in the morning for you to be drunk. So, you probably damaged the fiberglass animals out of meanness. Or from a contempt for community pride. Or on a dare. Or on a whim. Who knows? Maybe you were lashing out at all things beautiful because your significant other gave you the boot. You certainly were bold, striking twice, two hours and a few blocks apart, in the mid- to late morning of a holiday weekend.

You also were stupid. The moose you damaged, and possibly destroyed, were worth as much as $20,000 apiece as part of an EXCEL fundraiser for local schools. You committed a felony, pal. That means jail time, if you’re caught. Signs posted at the scene of your crime offer a $5,000 reward for your arrest and conviction. A clever deviant like you has to brag about such misdeeds to associates – ne’er-do-wells who’d betray a person for far less than $5,000. It’s only a matter of time until the police get you. Then, it’ll be interesting to see what excuse the public defender uses to explain your behavior. Were you deprived as a child? Were you dropped on your head? We don’t care.

After all, you didn’t just vandalize public art. You slapped the greater Coeur d’Alene community across the face.

Local and regional artists poured hundreds of hours of time into creating 26 different versions of the same 6-foot-high moose canvass. Before you kicked over “Matilda” in front of the Liesche, Reagan and Wallace law offices, did you bother to study the bold blues, browns, greens and sundry other colors used by artist Stephen Strickland? Did you know that artist George Flett named the other colorful moose you damaged “Digging Water Potatoes Along Lake Coeur d’Alene”? Of course not. Nor did you consider that local people paid $3,000 apiece for the honor of displaying the moose in front of businesses until they’re auctioned off Sept. 25. All you wanted to do was kick them over.

EXCEL still hopes to raise up to $200,000 from the “No Moose Left Behind” project to provide grants for special teacher projects. Cindi Ulen got one a few years ago to buy the technology for students at Borah Elementary to produce a decent newspaper. Physics teacher Scott Jacobson at Lake City High received a grant last year to teach students how to build robots. Now, EXCEL is forced to waste $5,000 to catch you – money that should go to deserving teachers for worthy projects. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Every year, no-account bums, like you, wreak havoc in public areas by spray-painting graffiti on government buildings, destroying public restrooms and vandalizing landscaping and playfields with their cars. They get their kicks by axing recently planted trees at City Park. Or by defacing other sources of community pride. You stepped over the line, however, when you attacked a project of such value and beauty. Obviously, you’re too clueless or callous to continue to walk free. We look forward to writing about you again, after your arrest.