On September 1, I saw a few reports that said Graceland had been “vandalized” with graffiti. In addition, I saw several social media posts where people were outraged by messages of “BLM” and “Eat the Rich” were painted on the walls outside of Graceland. As someone who has regularly attend the Candlelight Vigil, I guess I was supposed to be outraged too. I felt at least obliged to chime in.
My initial thought was that I can’t get too upset with people vandalizing a wall that Elvis’ fans vandalize every day. Heck, I have even put my name on that wall. I considered that maybe fans were upset because it was their job to deface the wall at Graceland and no one else could do it like them. I’m sure that lots of non-fans have written on the wall before. I thought back to the second year that I went to the candlelight vigil when I took a picture of a message on the wall that said, “Elvis was a Mormon”. At first, I thought it said, “Elvis was a Moron”. Either way, I thought it was an odd message to put on the wall at Graceland. But most of the messages had nothing to do with admiration for Elvis. There were just as many expressing affections for spouses or significant others. A political message on the wall wasn’t necessarily out of place, but it usually wasn’t as prominent as these new messages. And large messages weren’t that unusual either. And I’m sure that the larger, Elvis-related messages get powerwashed away just like the BLM messages were removed.
A couple of days earlier, I had watched the film “This Is Elvis”. In that film, there is footage of an early 1970’s press conference where a reporter is asking Elvis his thoughts on Vietnam. He said he didn’t want to comment. He said he didn’t have a problem with other artists expressing their opinion, but he didn’t want to do it.
Like Elvis trying to stay away from politics, I have always tried to keep my blog as non-political as possible. But as I pondered the BLM matter graffiti, I kept thinking about “Elvis was a Mormon”. I wondered about the motivation of the person that wrote that message. Did they know something about Elvis that most of the world doesn’t? From what I know about Elvis’ past, I imagine he was raised in a Baptist or Pentecostal church. As an adult, I know he investigated other spiritual beliefs, but I don’t know if any evidence that these investigations led him to the Church of Latter-Day Saints. I think the most reasonable explanation for this message is that it was a joke. An odd joke but still enough of a joke to catch my attention.
Then I considered the message of the BLM movement. Their desire is to be treated the same way that white people are treated by the police. That their vandalizing of a wall at Graceland be treated no different that of every other person that vandalizes that wall. If the police can start by treating “BLM” the same way as “Elvis was a Mormon” maybe they can treat all other situations the same.
