by Trent Rosser
A lone Native American is walking down the side of a highway, dressed head to toe in his heritage outfit. Suddenly a car whizzes by and throws trash into the ditch. The camera closes in on the Indians face and a lone tear rolls down his cheek. This was a commercial from the 70’s. It was a commercial to help stop the pollution in America. There was another commercial from the 80's that I really liked. It showed an old pickup cresting the top of a hill, and the driver throws out a bag of trash. Suddenly there is a fighter plane coming across the crest of the same hill. The narrator says “There is something to think about when you throw trash on Texas highways; someone up there is going to be watching. And you don’t want to mess with the Texas Confederate air force. Then the “Don’t Mess with Texas” slogan appears, and while the screen fades to black, you hear the voice crackle on the radio from the fighter plane.
I haven’t seen a “Don’t Mess with Texas” commercial in quite some time. I am thinking that we need to bring it back. I do not know why, but lately I have been noticing more and more trash littered across our city and our highways. Recently, the city of Amarillo, TX have start asking residents to drop their big bulky items in their front yard and not next to the dumpster in the alley. They want you to call when it is in your front yard and they will have someone pick it up within 24 hours. This has caused quite a bit of controversy in Amarillo. A few people claimed that they called and after 2 weeks the trash was still in the front yard. But, on the same token, I have heard from some that the stuff was picked up the next day. Now, I could be wrong, but I am under the impression that they want to eventually do away with all the dumpsters and have little green trash cans that they will pick up on certain days. I really do not see that working out. The Weather Channel has classified Amarillo, Texas as the windiest city with an average wind speed of 13.6 mph. It is not uncommon for wind gust up to 50 and 60 mph. If the wind here can blow down signs, trees and awnings, think what it could do to a little trash can left at the front of the house. Trash would be even worse that what it already is. Now I can see if maybe they had weights in the bottom holding them down, but if that was the case, then who would go to the elderly homes to drag it to the curb when it is full on trash day? I really do not see a good end to this scenario. But back to the problem at hand today.
Trash along the highway and city streets are starting to get ridiculous. I noticed at the convenience store around the corner from my home, had a lot of trash blowing around. There was one worker, (Heather) outside trying to pick it all up, but due to the wind, it was a never-ending battle. I know that all that trash was not thrown out at that convenience store. I know some had blown in from somewhere else. But she was out there trying to get it all. That was not the only place either. Someone threw out a dirty diaper in front of my house. I thought at first it looked like they tried to hit my truck with it. I then realized that it had just been ran over by other cars multiple times and it was now spread out and littered half the block. What really got me upset is when my wife and I went to the Walmart. I pull in and get out of her car and step in another piece of trash. Yep, just my luck. Another dirty diaper, and it was fresh! So, needless to say, I am a little ticked off. For the last couple of days, I have been watching the roads and seeing all the trash that I might have missed before. It seems like everywhere I go there is a carryout bag from a fast food restaurant full of trash in a parking lot. Beer and cola cans line up along the median between the highway and the frontage road. We, as a respectful human being race, need to spend an additional 30 seconds and drop our trash in a trash can. Amarillo is a beautiful city and full of prosperity and dreams. We need to keep Amarillo beautiful and pick up after ourselves.
I have a couple of ideas. Recently the city approved more red-light cameras. Instead of giving tickets for speeding or running the red light, give tickets to the ones that throw trash on the side of the road, or parking lot. If some one is found guilty of dumping trash, then they are required to spend community service picking up along side the road where they were caught throwing the trash. Can you image how much trash would be picked up along the interstate highway? Now of course, if you threw out a dirty diaper it would be a different punishment. Since diapers are mainly found in parking lots, you would not only have to clean the trash from that parking lot, but you would also be forced to EAT THE EVIDENCE! GROSS! That should stop many people from disposing of dirty diapers anywhere, but a trash can.
Maybe the state of Texas and the City of Amarillo can get together and do some more commercials. The “Don’t Mess with Texas” campaign and many commercials had native Texan celebrities from George Strait, Willie Nelson, George Foreman, Leann Rimes and even Matthew McConaughey had their own commercials. They even did a commercial with many other celebrities like Chuck Norris, Owen Wilson and Lance Armstrong. We should get our local celebrities together and make a commercial. We have quite a few celebrities from Amarillo, that could do it. Get Terry Funk to announce that he will beat the living crap out of anyone that he sees throwing trash on the highway. That is enough to scare me from throwing anything out the car window. Or even get our football team, “Venom” and hockey team “the Bulls” to do a “Don’t Mess with Amarillo” campaign.
Ok, I am off my soapbox now. Just please watch where you throw your trash and please, for the love of God, put the dirty diaper in a can. I do need to know one thing though. With all the diapers everywhere and overflowing with poop, what in the world are y’all feeding these kids?
