As many of you who read my column know, I’ve got three beautiful daughters.

The oldest is 6 years old; the middle one is 3 and the youngest is 2.

As you can imagine, they are pretty active children, and I’m never at a loss for exercise when it comes to chasing them around.

So in order to make them happy, and burn off a little of their steam, I’ve been taking them to the playground at Duncan Park after I pick them up from after-school daycare.

It’s a very nice playground in a good spot.

There are plenty of trees for shade, some benches to sit at and the playground equipment is in good shape and fun for the children.

There is, however, one big problem with the playground — the litter.

Every time I take the kids to the playground, I am discouraged by the amount of empty bottles, candy wrappers, cigarette butts and paper napkins or tissues that are spread across the lot.

It’s not like there are a lack of garbage cans in the area. In fact, there are three large garbage barrels that surround the pavilion that sits in the middle of the playground.

Not only is it ugly to look at, it also is a hazard to young children, who like nothing better than to pick up some nasty thing off the ground and see what it tastes like.

I know. I’ve had to frantically try and stop my two youngest children from tasting an old bottle or putting a bottle top in their mouths.

Each time I take the girls, I try and pick up at least the big things that sully the landscape, but the job is too big for just me to do alone.

And I’m not picking on just the Duncan Park playground. I know there are many more recreation areas that have litter in the city.

That’s just the place that I see almost every day.

Maybe I’m just old fashioned, but I don’t understand why anyone would willingly throw something on the ground when there are three large garbage cans within about 20-30 steps of where you are standing.

Perhaps it’s just a sign of a larger problem.

Does anybody care about anyone or anything but themselves?

Are we really that selfish where we would rather drop something on the ground and spoil a perfectly good play area for children instead of walking about 20 paces to place it in a garbage disposal?

I have been beating the drum on building a new recreation complex in this column space for years now, but if this is the way we are going to treat our recreation areas, perhaps we don’t deserve one.

Some of you might think I’m overreacting to a little bit of litter.

But it’s not just the litter. It’s the attitude behind it. If we don’t care enough about dropping an empty water bottle in the garbage, why would we bother to do the things it might take to make sure a possible new recreation complex stays in good shape?

So please, next time you have to dispose of a piece of trash, don’t just think of yourself and the convenience of dropping it on the ground.

Do the right thing and find a garbage disposal.

Believe me, I’ll thank you and so will a multitude of children who don’t have to play in a pile of trash.

Jeff Edwards is the sports editor for The Democrat. He can be reached at sports@natchezdemocrat.com, or by phone at 601-445-3632.