The graffiti will almost certainly return, but we hope that inevitability does not discourage the more than 150 people who worked on Saturday to remove the blight from part of Carson City.
What those volunteers did on Saturday was fight one battle in a long war. When the graffiti returns, we hope they'll step up again to reinforce the message that this community does not belong to the gangs. We like Supervisor Shelly Aldean's words about the message that was sent this weekend: "... they can't use this as a form of communication or to mark their territory because as soon as the graffiti appears it will disappear."
The community should be proud of what happened on Saturday. It's because of people like those volunteers that there is hope of winning this war, and also the one against drug abuse.
There are those in any community who question the fight, saying "what's the use" against such a formidable problem. Others say that the sheriff's department needs to do something about these problems.
But giving up is not the answer, nor is expecting law enforcement to solve it alone.
The answer is repeating the events of Saturday as many times as necessary. There's an endless supply of paint and, we hope, an equal amount of determination from people unwilling to give up their city.
We applaud the volunteers and the Carson City Community Coalition, as well as Kelly Moore paint for its donation.
And remember, Carson City Pride Week continues this week with free use of the landfill to residents and removal of junked vehicles at no charge.