When verbalizing something about Texas which bothers me I often find myself mentioning "Rick Perry" in some context regarding that about which I am bothered.
Another word that shows up, often, when I'm verbalizing about something in Texas which bothers me is the word "litter".
Sometimes "litter" and "Rick Perry" show up in the same verbalization about something that bothers me about Texas.
The astonishing amount of litter one sees in Texas is the #1 thing I hear mentioned when I communicate with someone early on in their Texas Culture Shock. Like Marie the (Now Missing) Herb Tracker. Early on in my communicating with the newly transplanted from Seattle, Marie the Herb Tracker, Marie verbalized her disdain for all the litter, saying "it makes my forehead wrinkle."
I'm guessing the phrase "forehead wrinkle" is a poetic way of saying "frown".
Today my forehead wrinkled when I took a walk around my neighborhood and saw that which you see above, behind Albertsons. In addition to what looked to be discarded produce there was a discarded mattress, among a diverse collection of litter, with the lighter litter being dispersed by the wind.
Why would Albertsons, or whoever is responsible for this strip mall, not quickly get this mess cleaned up?
From the location of this litter mess I can see Miss Puerto Rico's balcony. A couple years ago, from that balcony, Miss PR and I watched an amazing display of Fort Worth police in action. At least a dozen police cars showed up within minutes. A young man had shoplifted a box of disposable diapers from the neighborhood Dollar Store. We watched as the young man was caught, handcuffed and laid, facedown, on the trunk of a police car.
I certainly think one should not be shoplifting, but one must be desperate to shoplift a box of diapers. This was a bit more of a crime than Jean Valjean stealing a loaf of bread, due to being hungry. But, the police response seemed to be just about equally out of whack.
So, where are the police when a wanton act of littering takes place? Does Albertsons get a citation for its litter mess? If not, why not?
One would think if one can get a ticket for not wearing ones seatbelt one should get ticketed and fined for a really bad act of littering.
And why is Texas such a littered mess? Why do so many people here have trouble properly disposing of litter?
If you ever have the opportunity to take a road trip out of Texas, heading west, or northwest, you will notice, soon after leaving Texas, that the roadside litter is greatly diminished. By the time you get to Colorado the outer world starts to look remarkably more tidy than the outer world in Texas looks. This phenomenon continues all the way to the West Coast.
Texas has an anti-littering campaign that uses the slogan "Don't Mess With Texas". There is a lot of litter evidence on the ground that this anti-littering campaign is not very effective.
Methinks it might behoove Texas to come up with a new anti-littering campaign to more effectively convince people to stop messing with Texas....
3 comments:
Go and pick up the litter if it bothers you so much.
Try lighting a candle occasionally instead of constantly cursing the darkness.
Anonymous, I have properly disposed of plenty of improperly disposed litter. Can one not pick up others litter and also be bothered by the litter?
I light plenty of candles, often by blogging about something which I think is in need of a fix.
And I don't do anything constantly, let alone curse darkness.
My suspicion would be that Albertsons was the unlucky recipient of some of that litter, given that Albertsons does not sell mattresses, let alone used mattresses. I have to say that I miss twice a week trash pickup and how one could put out all manner of refuse and get it hauled off. Now, if it doesn't fit in your cart with the top closed, you have to wait for the once a month big pickup or haul stuff to the dump yourself. And people who don't care to play by the rules often dump it ... wherever.
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