Clarksdale has so many beautiful homes. We have beautiful parks and streets lined with big new sidewalks and ornamental street lights and light poles.
We have grand churches and modern city and county buildings. We have manicured lawns and planters downtown that actually have live, blooming flowers.
We have artwork everywhere!
And sadly we also have litter.
This newspaper loves parades and covers them with the smile they bring. But we frown when we see the candy-wappers and trash thrown down on our city streets.
We love shopping at our grocery stores but are a little put off by the dirty diaper someone left for us on the parking lot.
Those who have yards know how hard it is to keep fast food containers, cans and empty potato chip bags off their property.
Our mayor and some of his buddies cleaned up a street in Riverton this spring and in less than two weeks it was cluttered with litter.
We have other civic groups who have made the noble effort only to see their work rubbed in their face by litter bugs.
Research conducted by Keep America Beautiful, Inc. has found that people litter because they feel no sense of ownership for the property, because they believe someone else will pick up after them, and because litter has already accumulated. Litter bugs really don’t care about anything, are selfish and have no home-training.
Some people also dump garbage, old appliances, tree branches - anything that fits in a car or truck - in less-traveled places or somewhere they think they won't be caught. This is illegal dumping and it is a crime!
Changing attitudes about trash and its handling reduces litter and dumping.
And this is the key: You have to stop people from throwing it down. You can pick up litter until the proverbial cows come home and it won’t make one bit of difference.
We hope our school start by not letting students litter halls, classrooms or campuses.
We hope police will make riff-raff that litters downtown with beer cans and liquor bottles clean up their act and move along.
And, yes, clean-up projects can help in two important ways. Removing litter and cleaning up the area will make it less likely to attract more trash. And the more people are involved, the more they will appreciate the environment and learn that their noble actions do matter.
Let’s show some pride and clean up Clarksdale.
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