Pack it Out

Ever feel the blood drain out of your face and go as white as the sheet of paper your were holding? I am subpoenaed as a witness for the commonwealth for the whole dog poop issue of a past tenant in my apartment building. Why he had to get a dog (lease said no pets) and then let it run loose (against township code) and not clean up it's poop in our shared yard (DUH) is a real push for my comprehension. I had hoped early on that gentle letters or kindly spoken verbal information would put things on track. Even a visual demonstration of a Walmart bag heavily filled with their dog's waste RGBisMe had cleaned from the yard was not enough.

My deciding to go through appropriate legal channels has gotten me a white piece of paper to back up the state against someone who doesn't want to pay a fine. They had gentle warnings. From me, my husband, and the dog enforcement official. After all of the warnings, they have persisted and are now fighting a fine. We heard they contend many things. They felt they only paid rent for the inside of the building and the yard was not their responsibility yet they helped themselves to trashing it with dog waste and emptying the contents of their vacuum cleaner into the yard and onto my sidewalk. They also have said that it was not their dog but loose dogs in the neighborhood that left the waste in the yard. I imagine it was the same dogs who brought their vacuum cleaners there too.

I am disheartened that so many (not always younger - see addendum below*) folks I run into seem to have the attitude that they do not need to be held accountable for their actions nor do they need to follow rules or laws. So much of what I see is a general attitude of, "This doesn't apply to me." When we, as a society, clean up after people are we enabling them? Should I have kept cheerfully dodging land mines of poop in my lawn until it was time to mow? Should RGBime continued to shovel up a weekly +5lb bag of dog waste when we don't have a dog? Along the same lines should we hikers pack out the trash others leave in the woods? If a ready "yes" comes to your mind then ask yourself if PSU should clean up the tons of trash left behind from tailgating parties on campus? Again "yes"? What are we teaching people when we clean up their messes and don't hold them accountable?

I won't stop picking up trash on the trail but I am very depressed that I have been called to court. I am also counseled to wait outside the magistrate's office, in the parking lot, until I am needed because the person who has been fined has a history of being so irrational as to become physically violent over this issue.

I don't like cleaning up other people's messes.

* If you are thinking that the tailgating messes are a bunch of drunken college students, think again. These are out of towners and alums who party and trash the area. Kudos recently given to our tidy PSU students and townies.