My wife often asks my opinion when she is involved in some remodeling project. When she decided we should retile the counter around the kitchen sink, she showed me some sample tiles. I picked an orange one. I was thinking bright, colorful.

"Seriously?" my wife asked.

She went with green.

The people who live in Portland Estates off Geyer Road in Frontenac might have sided with me. When they installed new signage to their subdivision last month, they did not opt for understatement. Large concrete entrances on either side of the street proclaim, Portland. The neighborhood association paid $80,000 for the entrances.

Last week, vandals struck. In black paint, somebody scrawled "Wake Up" on one entrance, and "Occupy" on the other.

Stacked up against most indignities that are chronicled daily in this newspaper, the vandalism might not seem like much.

I found it terribly sad.

For one thing, I have been generally sympathetic to the young people who have gathered under the Occupy banner. I understand their frustration.

In the days of my youth, American exceptionalism was a reality, not a political talking point. We were an economic titan. "Made in China" and "Made in Japan" were synonymous with inferior. Men with little formal education made good wages in manufacturing. For the most part, they made enough that their wives could stay home with the kids.

Many of these kids eventually headed to college. Most of us were the first generation to do so. It was assumed we would do better than our parents. For the most part, we have.

That sense of unbounded optimism is gone. A college degree is no longer a surefire ticket to the middle class.

It's as if an unwritten contract has been broken.

So it was not surprising that something like Occupy would happen. Nor was it surprising that the movement would be so amorphous. Who exactly are the young people supposed to blame?

CEOs make millions, sometimes even as their companies flounder. Union leaders sometimes seem most interested in representing themselves. Look at the officials from the teachers union in Illinois who have gamed the system to get themselves six-figure pensions. Politicians seem interested only in winning the next election.

When the enemy is everywhere, it's hard to be a sharpshooter.

I heard a young woman on Charlie Brennan's radio show on KMOX. She told Brennan that she would leave the Occupy encampment at Kiener Plaza when some of their demands were met. Such as? When they take the money out of politics, she said.

Might as well aim high.

Actually, I never quite understood the Occupy St. Louis part of the movement. Occupy Wall Street, I got that. I would have been fine with Occupy Washington. Maybe even Occupy Palm Beach.

But Occupy St. Louis? Who around here sets policy?

Then again, the young people I spoke with when I visited the encampment at Kiener Plaza seemed very earnest. They are coming of age in a tough economy and they are not expecting somebody to hand them success. They just want an opportunity.

Truth is, I suspect they are a smarter, harder-working generation than my own.

So I wish them well, and I was saddened to see somebody use their cause for something as senseless and destructive as defacing the entrance to a subdivision. I thought about the Taliban blowing up the 1,500-year-old statues of Buddha. What was accomplished?

I drove out to Portland Estates on Friday morning. I spoke to a couple of residents who were out walking. They shook their heads in disgust at the vandalism, but they seemed more understanding than I would have expected.

"Probably just some kids," one said, and the thought occurred to me that it was probably local kids. Geyer Road is not exactly a thoroughfare.

But whoever did it, their message is lost on me. I'm on the side of the people of Portland Estates, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of them have orange tiles in their kitchens.