Recently, I noticed the city, county and state doing all they could with prisoners, employees and volunteers to pick up trash around Natchez and Adams County. My question is why? Why should so much time and money be spent on picking up trash that lazy, inconsiderate, trashy people throw out of their vehicles. I guess I’m preaching to the choir since most of the people that throw trash out of their vehicles probably can’t read either so this letter will never be seen by the responsible parties.

Not long ago, Butch Brown made a comment that I never thought of before — he said that a large percent of the trash on the roadways blows out of the back of pick-up trucks. Being a pick-up driver, I have been known to throw a coffee cup or piece of paper in the back of the truck thinking that when I cleaned out the truck it would still be there — it wasn’t. Since I heard Brown’s comments, I have been very conscience of what I put in the back of my truck. My point is that it doesn’t take a mental giant to correct misconduct when it is brought to his attention — and to roll down the window and consciously throw trash out is just trashy.

The other day two teenagers in a blue pick-up drove down my street, turned around in my driveway, opened their door and dropped off two garbage bags full of beer cans in the middle of the street and drove off. I guess they were trying to hide the fact they had been out drinking all night from their parents, but there are plenty of Dumpsters in this county plus two county owned dumps they could have gone to. Why would someone with enough sense to drive a vehicle think dumping their trash in the middle of a residential subdivision street was the right thing to do?

I would like to suggest to the sheriff and the police chief that they form and train a group of volunteers to report license plate numbers to their respective departments of people littering and that after two reports of the same tag number, a ticket be issued for a substantial fine. This same group could also report illegal parking in handicap parking places. I will be glad to volunteer with either or both groups.

Forest Persons

Natchez resident