I love spring .. the time of year when the snow begins to melt, the flowers begin to grow and all the garbage that people have tossed out their car windows during the winter months begins to peek out of the snow and really show just how lazy some people can be.
Every day, I drive over the back country roads and into Norwich, and what a lovely drive it is. If you ignore the fast food bags, water bottles, old tires, and bags of trash that seem to have been deposited in the streets, sidewalks, streams and ditches of Chenango County, you can see the beautiful landscape, the peaceful creeks, and the budding flowers. Unfortunately, it’s hard to ignore the growing garbage mess, and ignoring it only allows it to get worse and worse year after year.
I’m not the type of person who can ignore seeing trash floating all around my town, so when I go out for a walk, I’ll try to pick up what I can. But every time you go back out, there’s more to be done. I wonder about the people who think there is nothing wrong with throwing their trash all over the countryside. Do you think they have as little disregard for their homes as they do for the earth that we all share? If you walked into their house would you see a pile of tires sitting in the corner, garbage cans sitting empty while the trash accumulated on the floor?
Most people have enough common sense to know if they were behaving that way in a home or a restaurant or a public setting, their behavior would be disgusting and unacceptable. So I’m not sure why people think it is OK to do the same things just because they are outside.
The garbage issue has been a problem for years, but nothing seems to be done to keep people from trashing every area of Chenango County that they come across. I’m not sure exactly what can be done. Maybe instead of fining people for littering, courts could force them to do 40 hours of community service, picking up garbage on roadways, or working at a recycling center. It’s one thing for a person to take a hit to their wallet, but I think if they are embarrassed by having to wear an orange jumpsuit and pick up trash for a week, they’re probably going to be less likely to contribute to the problem again in the future.
I don’t know what the solution is, but I do know that I am sick of cleaning up after the degenerates who are trashing the earth and ignoring the fact that their actions affect everyone around them. If people want to behave like pigs, they belong in a pig sty. And if we aren’t careful, those people will create a major one, right here in Chenango County.