Borf is Dead

Well, it finally happened. They captured Borf. They arrested him late last night. For those of you who have never heard of Borf, he is responsible for those strange spray-painted pictures that you've seen throughout D.C. on streetlamps, newspaper stands, electrical boxes and brick walls. There was even a huge picture over the Roosevelt Bridge. No message, really. Just a picture of a boy and the name "Borf". All over the city.




Soon thereafter, tags begin to pop up saying, "Borf writes letters to your children" and "Borf is good for your liver". People even started writing for him, saying "Borf hates NYPD" or "Borf hates God". For those of you interested, there's even a flickr collection devoted to Borf sightings. According to the Washington Post article, the name "Borf" was the nickname of a close friend of his who had committed suicide two years ago. Which, I suppose is appropriate, considering that it was his friend's picture spray painted across D.C. A sad homage wrapped in a spray-painted statement of youth and anarchy. It was everything that was wrong with the world, packaged in a simple act of stealthy defiance.

Personally, I'm sad to see it go. Yes, I understand that graffitti is costly to clean up and is often derogatory or rude. But there are times where personal expression is refreshing. While most tags in D.C. demarcate gang territory and boundaries, these pictures were statements -- statements against the staleness of government and the cynicism that comes with growing older. Strange? Definitely. But if you ask me, a person that passed them on the street every day on my way to work, they were harmless. As one of the pictures says, "Grown-ups are obsolete." I mean, he has a point.

It reminds me that differences of opinion do not create a world of addle-minded people. On the contrary, they add focus and color to doctrine and to dogma. Knowing what you don't believe or agree with is just as instructive as knowing what you do believe. It's two sides of the same coin. Besides, this world would be a lot more boring without color.