Sunday, December 2, 2007

817- WRONG APPROACH

WE HAVE GOT THIS ALL BACKWARD
I was out near Beach Road pathway early this morning (12/2) about 6:30am and I saw a group of yellow shirted people with trash bags so I assumed they were there to gather trash, a gallant and noble undertaking for sure. I tip my hat.
Later this morning I read the news and saw this photo and write up on the efforts of these people..
MARINES CLEANUP: More than 80 sailors and Marines from the visiting USS Germantown team up with students from Garapan Elementary School in picking up trash during Friday morning's cleanup project on the streets of Garapan. The event was facilitated by the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, USS Germantown, Beautify CNMI!, and MINA. (see photo)
Now I salute all these efforts to keep the Island clean but the question that keeps coming to mind everytime I see or read about these the clean-up drives...
WHY THE HELL DO THEY HAVE TO KEEP DOING THIS ALL THE TIME? WHY DON'T THE PEOPLE THROWING THE TRASH JUST STOP IT!?
To me it's like having a spoiled child whose mother, rather then training the child to be neat and clean-up after themselves, always picks-up and cleans for them thus never training the child to take care of themselves and the child remains a slob. A careless messy slob who expects that whatever they do or mess-up someone will be coming behind then and clean-up for them.
Why can't these people producing this mess be held responsible for their own trash? This is the root of the problem, dirty, filthy selfish slobs uncaring about the trash and litter they dispose of all over the island. This must be stopped at the root of the problem and eliminate all these good people from here and other people coming here to have clean up the trash of these slobs.
One person policing the very same areas that have to be constantly cleaned up by 30 people, with the authority to hand out fines, could help stop the mess. It's a sorry thing to have to do but the trashing must stop and other people should not have to clean-up after these slobs!
Let the same amount of effort used to clean-up be put into improvements. So lets not just keep catching-up to what was yesterday, but move foward to better things and get-ahead for tomorrow.
I'd like to hear your ideas on how to stop these slobs and eliminate the need for these regular clean-up drives.
.....GED.....

14 comments:

Jeff said...

Of course people shouldn't be littering, but they do. I think it is an effort to shame people into not littering, and take control of the island and the environment. The opposite, no one doing anything, is worse.

glend558 said...

Shaming people into cleaning up? Never happen.
You think the mind set will go like this.. We better clean-up so they don't have to do it for us..
Or rather like this...Leave it there someone will pick it up for us.. I think it's the latter..

Anonymous said...

here's a thought: deputize (all volunteer) elementary kids to enforce the anti litter law. each school will get a small portion (1/4?) of the tickets paid. raise the fines to $1,000 with stiff interest rates for unpaid fines.

bartemaeus

glend558 said...

How about all unemployed prople who police the trashed areas get to keep 1/2 of every ticket they write, the other half going to DPS and the courts for enforcement and collection.
Just a thought....

bigsoxfan said...

Fire bombs are out, I suppose. You know on a few occasions in traffic, some one really did something stupid and/or rude and I got off the scooter and pounded on the window of the vehicle until they got the message. I gave the habit up, after scaring the piss out of an old lady with capper plates, who just couldn't drive well.

Anonymous said...

How about everyone standing in line for food stamps be given a broom and a shovel and they can earn the food stamps. Think of the self esteem they will get.

Anonymous said...

This sounds radical, but how about REDUCING fines? On reason local enforcement doesn't issue citations is because of the size of the fine.

I also think giving some sort of "commission" would help too. But for these well meaning groups to continually clean up after the "trashers" is only a long term education effort at best.

glend558 said...

Does law enforcement now get to pick which laws they inforce if they don't like the penatlies? So if a murderer will get the death penalty and enforcement is against the death penalty they should let them go free? Don't make sense. It don't even work that way...
If this is indeed happening this should be looked into by the comissioner.

saipanboonieman said...

or how about appropriating a portion of the fines collected to pay for trash collection and stray animal control?

ive seen beach goers actually putting their trash into the many bins located near the picnic areas, only to see stray dogs or cats dig out the uncollected trash and scatter it all over the place!

Angelo Villagomez said...

DEQ is the one pushing to reduce the fines. That comment came from them.

Bon said...

The fact that the kids get involved at a young age means that they are one step further in making it a part of their lives, keeping our islands clean. My hope is that every one of those kids will go home and remind their family and friends to help maintain our environment and to have an attitude of appreciation and preservation. They seem to understand all of "this" will be theirs one day. That's the beauty of education with feet!

Anonymous said...

boni hit the nail on the head.

glend558 said...

Boni is always right, thats why she is where she is...

Bon said...

Thank you, but I've been wrong many many more times than right. This one is an easy one though, it's all about early intervention.