(ab-strakt, abstrakt)

Art in an alley, only as meaningful or as meaningless as I allow it to be, matches my mood today... election day in America. In an alley I came across a building that has fallen victim to graffiti bandits. The alley is the site of a battle of brushes. The term abstract never has had more meaning than in the context of these paint smears. As an adjective abstract describes something that is set apart from concrete existence. Whatever is only theoretical, not applied or practical, is said to be abstract. If something is difficult to understand, is abstruse, it is said to be abstract.

There are other definitions of abstract, but today I’m not summarizing the important points of a text. What I am doing is feeling as if meaning has been stolen from the Political process in America. Of course, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin are free to say whatever they want to say to whomever they wish to say it. To remove without permission, to filch, is also a meaning of the word abstract. These people are abstracting dignity and logic from the American way. They claim to be the purveyors of truth and right; but are actually clever people who have discovered a schtick that has turned out to be a goldmine. They have recognized that a good chunk of the American population is willing to pay to be fed nonsense that feeds their fear and anger. Is it any wonder that the former short-term Alaskan governor gave up her relatively low paying government job to earn what is estimated to be something in the neighborhood of twelve million dollars feeding the Latter Day American Tea Party frenzy? I’m not at all sure they believe what they say they believe any more than any good actor really has to believe the part he/she plays. Theirs is an impersonal abstraction, only theoretical, not at all practical.