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Published: July 22, 2008 05:41 pm
Readers' forum: July 23, 2008
Trash containers put residents in ‘blue’ mood
Ahhh … Tuesday morning! I am up early and out in the front yard of my parents home ready to walk the dogs. The birds are chirping, winds are calm, pooches ready and leashed … and GO! We’re off! First obstacle, BIG BLUE TRASH CAN on the front edge of the lawn. Immediately it is the “bread and butter” effect as dogs go ’round the big can one way and I the other.
As we head down 29th Street, College, etc., there are many, many bright blue cans lining both sides of the streets, glistening in the fresh morning dew. I draw in a fresh breath of air and get strong whiffs of “eau de garbage” that overwhelm me like waves in a riptide.
But wait a minute. What am I doing here on this side of town, bright and early Tuesday morning? Why, I don’t think I mentioned it. I arrive early at Mom and Pop’s house to help them get the TRASH CANS OUT TO THE STREET!
I wonder if a lot of other older folks in this city are having the same problem? I wonder if there is a city ordinance against my dogs stopping and sniffing and lifting legs to these new-on-the-street aromatic cobalt objects?
Well, I think we all get the point.
But what to do with all the OLD garbage cans that used to line the alley ways? We can’t put the old neglected cans in the new cans as trash, or can we?
Hmmmm. What if we collect the old ones and return them back to the city of Terre Haute, sort of a magnanimous gift from the community?
Maybe the city would display them as art forms, stacked high in front of the courthouse, a symbol to represent how the change from once-hidden trash in the alleys to all out exposure in our front yards is one of progressive attitudes.
Or maybe the old cans should be placed in a location where we, just ordinary people, can drive by and wave at them, maybe bring the kids to see the old cans and rekindle stories like “Yes, Jimmy, that’s how we used to put out garbage in the alleys, those old cans really kept the streets looking mighty clean back then. Main streets were … well, you could see yards and lawns without any obstruction, kid.”
I was suddenly hit in the face with a breath of fresh air! I looked around and found myself and the dogs had wandered from the streets and into the alleyways.
Hey, this is pretty nice.
Was I guided here by some sort of subliminal message while I was day-dreaming of tidy lawns or was it that I slipped into the alley because I was tired of dodging trash dumpsters?!
The alleys looked, well, empty, except for the now abandoned wooden structures and small fenced enclosures that people so tenderly built to keep the trash neat and tidy and away from the front of their manicured homes. As the dogs and I came down the alley and hit the streets again, I noticed my mood switched from lighthearted to somewhat dismal as these new big blue trash cans created a visual effect like that of an infinite tunnel on every street, kind of like in a scary movie where you are trapped in a never-ending hallway.
I arrived back to my parents house and waited for their new can to be emptied. I did not marvel at the city truck or at this new system. As I pulled the empty vessel to the back yard I reminded myself that my trash gets picked up on the other side of town on Thursdays.
I made a mental note that when I lug my new can out to the front street, I must remember to help my elderly neighbor, as just as I help my parents now. Good thing there are plenty of good neighbors in this town.
But, hey, isn’t BLUE an appropriate color to associate the mood of how many people feel toward the city’s decision to put trash in front of our homes?
— Liz Lane
Terre Haute
GOP talking points divert attention
It is good to see that the Republicans and all their appointed talking heads received their memos to go after the Democrats on their opposition to oil drilling offshore and in the Alaska Wildlife Refuge.
Suddenly wherever I look there is someone explaining how it is somehow the Democratic Party’s fault that gas is $4 a gallon, and climbing, because we tree-hugging caribou lovers vehemently oppose Big Oil raping the landscape. I believe during the last election cycle the inter-GOP memo was to get everyone stirred up about gay marriage. It is a formula that has worked well for the GOP in the past so I can hardly blame them for their straw grasping this time around.
Admittedly, it must be difficult to be a Republican running for office in this election year and if I was a nicer person I could almost commiserate. I believe, however, that anyone who has the slightest capability of critical thinking (or anyone who has been paying attention for the past eight years) is going to see right through what is, at best, a very flimsy argument. Mostly, it is smoke and mirrors to try and keep us from thinking about what a failure the Bush administration has been and how happy more than 80 percent will be to see him and his cronies leave office come 2009.
I may be jaded, but I am certainly not stupid and I know if we started drilling for oil around the entire perimeter of our shoreline tomorrow, it would not make one iota of difference to what the average American pays at the gas pump.
Let the oil companies drill on public lands they are all ready leasing before we give them carte blanch to more of our shorelines and wilderness areas. Greg Goode and Mike Sodrel seem to think they have answers. Maybe they can explain why Republicans blocked a Democratic led effort to force the oil companies to do just that?
— Sue Murphy
Cory
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