Trashing America: Readers respond

By Frosty Wooldridge

In Part 1 of Trashing America, I covered the obvious littering of America in many forms.  As the series continues, you will read about other litter that you can’t see, but is even more dangerous than the litter you can see.

Nonetheless, the piece hit a cord of discontent. Here are some of the responses from more than 100 reader responses:

“I am 75 years of age, but I always keep my yard and garden mowed, trimmed and clean.  I plant a vegetable garden in my back yard every summer.  People come along and steal from it, while marauding, unsupervised kids and teenagers pick my unripe apples, plums, berries and grapes and throw them at each other.  Oh, what fun!  I have gone outside and kindly offered to give them fruit if they leave it until it becomes ripe, just knock on my door and ask for a sack. But they give me the middle finger.  Every day, people drive by and throw their trash, plastic bottles, McDonald’s wrappers and bags in my yard, and I have to clean it up.  Yes, people are horrible slobs.  Why?  Because moms and dads quit teaching morals, values, principles and ethics a long time ago.  They are out working to satisfy their insatiable desire for Chinese crap that they can use as future litter.

“When my kids were small (back in the 60s), we lived at the beach in So. CA.  At the time, there was a deposit on soda bottles.  They made all their spending money picking up bottles and returning them to the stores.  Today, my son (age 52) is a greens keeper at a golf course here in Illinois. Of course, when fall arrives, the golf courses close, so he takes to the streets and roads and earns money picking up cans and selling them.  Just think, if all the millions of unemployed Americans on unemployment compensation would get off their duffs, they could clean up America in no time at all.”  Ruth P. Fairfield, IL

“Just read your most recent NWV article, part 1, and couldn’t agree more with you.  America is being trashed by gluttony filled Americans.  Their behavior will never end.  In my neighborhood in Maricopa County, AZ (Mesa), there are homes that look like open landfills, with garbage of every description.  When you call the County to complain, there is never enough personnel to send out to inspect the complaint and the situation grows worse.
 
“I have been down to the Arizona Border, from Douglas, to Nogales, to Yuma and the trash piles left by Illegal Aliens boggles the mind.  It is estimated that just in Arizona, Illegal’s alone have deposited hundreds of millions of pounds of plastic, clothing, shoes, knapsacks, food containers, human waste and much more over many years.  Some of this debris has been there for so long that it is covered by desert, grass and undergrowth and is 6 feet high.  Washes, once used to channel what little rain water we get to natural growth areas are no clogged and essentially useless.  If people needed to have a national monument that displays our lack of guardianship to the land….we could sell postcards all day long, every day….just to prove that we’ve been there, seen it and done that. As always, keep up the good work that you do. Warmest regards, Michael B. Douglas, AZ

“Sir – regarding your commentary on roadside trash, I returned from Germany after seven years, in late ’89, to my house in Fayetteville, N.C. After living in the very clean Bavarian countryside for so many years, I had forgotten what a trash heap Fayetteville was. I was appalled and saddened as my wife and I drove back to our house. The roadside was littered with beer bottles and cans, McDonald’s bags and like items. Every few months some lady would write a letter to the local newspaper lamenting the trashy roadsides. I felt like writing a letter in reply to inform people that the appearance of a neighborhood, town or city was a direct reflection on the quality of the people who live there. As a Special Forces soldier and later as a civilian, I have worked in sub-Saharan Africa and I know, all too well, that for Africans, the roadside and countryside is their trash can. Fayetteville is half minority. To those who might call me “racist”, I am just an engineer and engineers, being applied scientists, rely on facts and analysis. I have recently moved to Maine. The area is almost completely European. The trash on the roadside is minimal.

“As you may be aware, a lesson of history is that whenever an advanced civilization imports primitive peoples into their society, they have just signed the death warrant for their own civilization. This is happening all over Europe as well.   All empires die and all for the same reasons. Our empire is dead and the corpse is starting to stink. Perhaps a white Christian Phoenix will rise from the ashes.”  Frank N. Maine

“Good article and again on target.  While out skiing in the past years I have often see parents and kids tossing their junk on the ground and on the ski runs.  I went up and asked one guy “Hey why not just put the garbage in the can that is sitting 5 FEET from you and got a big F U in my face as he skied away.  People are lazy slobs and I am sure their house must be a disaster.  I picked up and put it in the can and tried to set an example.  People have lost their sense of pride and responsibility for themselves and their country.    Guess I come from a different background.  My parents would have given me swift kick in the butt had I done such things. Courtesy and consideration have been thrown out the window with many in this country.  It is time for a change.” Barry M.  Chicago, IL

“Good morning Frosty. Your article about trashing America hit home with me. We live in Branson, MO, which receives about eight million visitors a year. The amount of trash along the roadways in our area is appalling. The state and county has a program where minimal risk prisoners pick up trash along the highways. Three days later one cannot even tell the trash has been picked up. Just last week the state was completing the final mowing of the right of ways. The amount of paper trash thrown by the mowers multiplied.  What is our great country coming to? Is there no pride anymore?” Glen A.  MO

“I recently moved to Vicino, Napoli, Italy and talk about trash, OMG.  The Italiano mafia controls the trash pickup around here and it is a total mess.

“Now I live in a beach bungalow north east of Napoli and I go out at least every other day and pick up at least two big trash bags each round and I have only gotten 50 yards in either direction.  To aid my activities I built a sort of wheel barrow (that will roll on sand) from trash mostly found on the beach – 2 thirteen inch rimless tires (used plywood wood for rims), and a blue plastic 50 gal drum someone had cut in half and left on the beach.  It works nicely so I can now carry more than twice as much.

“The trash on the beach in addition to what you might expect like soft drink containers, aluminum cans (yep no recycling here) and tires?  Medical waste (three syringes yesterday), and everything people flush down the toilet like Q-Tips, crotch swatches and everything else because the stuff going to the outfall is not filtered . . . Ohime!”

Bjorno da Castel, Volturno, Italia

Their responses show that people do care.  I hope to propose a national 10 cent deposit-return law that will give enough financial incentive to create a 99 percent recycle impact on all plastic, cans, glass and other containers.

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