Garbage, Garbage Everywhere!

I am angry. I am appalled. Angry at those low-class scumbags who continue to adorn grassy areas of highway medians, sidewalks, and other public areas with soda cans, beer bottles, cigarette butts, fast food bags and other rubbish. I am appalled that the powers that be are not doing more to put an end to this despicable activity. Cherokee! Cobb! Fulton! Pick a county…any county around the Metro Atlanta area. Then take a drive through some communities including those well manicured "swim and tennis" neighborhoods. I am not a gambling woman, but I’ll bet you a fistful of dollars that you will find pockets of areas that are reminiscent of an abandoned "section 8" slum!

I am sure there are garbage control and pick up crew - employed by the county or city - who periodically patrol highly visible roadways to tidy things a bit before they get way out of control. I have seen them and would like to use this opportunity to give them a high five! (Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know they are just doing their job-but still…)

Back to the subject, any government official or officials who want my vote, together with the votes of everyone I know, ought to do more! He, She or They, need to address this issue head on by looking for creative ways to effectively fight this eyesore of mini epidemic proportion.

Put up signs at strategic locations that say “LITTERERS will be TORTURED or BEHEADED for all I care. Just do something! Set up a phone line or an online forum so that residents who give a hoot would have the opportunity to get involved. Encourage them to call in license plates of offenders and promptly report every trashing activity they witness. Remind them that looking the other way translates to not doing the right thing. If you must offer incentives such as printable coupons to Kroger or property tax credits, so be it! I think that Cherokee county can set a precedence of “zero tolerance” for littering. Hopefully, bordering counties will follow in our footsteps as well.

Let’s go get those litterbugs and make them pay! Northern Georgia is blessed with natural beauty. We should try to keep it that way!