Bus Bench No Longer for Rent in Columbus

A couple of months ago, I wrote about my encounter with a bus bench in Columbus, Ohio that had been appropriated for purposes of guerilla theater:

By the end of June, however, the “U.S. Congress” sign had been ripped off, revealing the original image accompanying the ad as a generic yellow smiley face. Ho hum: in my opinion, the satirical add-on was much more visually arresting than the yellow smiley, probably generating the attention of more potential advertisers, for a longer length of time to boot.

The original smiley face remained blandly uncovered for another month or so, until just a few days ago, when a spray-painted pencil of a white Republican Elephant on a blue and red background appeared, perfectly covering the space of the smiley face, as the “United States Congress” logo did. Hee, hee! Somebody in my neighborhood has been careful and thorough in their visual activism.

Early this morning, long before dawn, I took a walk over to the site of this recurrent political vandalism to take a picture, documenting it. But alas and alack, the back of the bench had been wholly replaced with a shiny new advertisement proclaiming “We Sell Houses!” and sporting an altogether nice portrait of a smiling man next to a smiling woman, each with that helmet hair the news anchors have perfected.

Sigh. Things come and go. I just wish I’d taken my walk one morning earlier.