Five days of litter on lockdown

By Frank Visco
Collegian Editor
March 19, 2008

Thursday: I’m walking back from dinner at Treetops Café when I notice periodic signs taped to the sidewalk. All four sides, duct tape, pink paper. They are advertisements for the Health Fair, which happened earlier in the day. Sadly, I could not attend because I was at my internship. A pity: I had wanted a glucose test. Despite the lethargy the advertisements stir up within me, I trudge on, admiring the go-getter mindset of the Health Fair’s organizers. This was surely an effective advertising tool. Props for ingenuity.

Friday: Once again walking back from Treetops, this time from lunch. The signs are still on the ground. I’m downtrodden, particularly in light of the fact that ingenuity was not followed by responsibility. I think to myself: these signs won’t clean themselves up. I make a mention of this to my friend, Sean Houlihan. He tells me it is supposed to rain. This does not seem promising. I hope the Health Advisory Committee are just putzing around, and that they will surely send someone to clean this mess up.

Saturday: It’s early morning and I’m headed to work. It rained last night. The signs don’t look so good, but they’re still holding strong. I wonder: Will not the promoters return to the scene of the crime? I survey the parking lot and see a variety of empty boxes, the former dwelling of evacuated bottles. Pollution, littering – it all sucks, but the signs are the glaring problem. They have been attached to the earth, and even worse, by good sober people for a good cause. I consider ripping one off in anger, but decide against it. I decide to see how long this is allowed to go on.

Sunday: Back from dinner at ‘Tops again, and I still see the signs. They are a faded in that way that paper fades after being sun dried. I complain to my girlfriend on the phone. Later, I consider the possibility of an article. I wonder if it would be mean to criticize the Health Fair. Health is a good thing and fairs are fun, these things I know, so why should I criticize? Am I blowing things out of proportion? After all, it is likely that this error is the cause of forgetfulness, not maliciousness. I highly doubt the Health Advisory Committee and it’s associated student organizations are trying to make a statement against a clean environment. Still, I decide things are sized correctly, that having not cleaned these things up in four days speaks ill of its promoters.

Monday: Sean mentions he attended the Health Fair. He says it was alright. While he did not get a glucose test, he seems happy about the Polish water ice that was apparently on hand. When I return to Basil from class I see that the signs are still there. The one located right outside of Basil flaps in the wind, freed of its tape restrictions on three of four sides. It’s a sad image. I write my article in the hopes that other people will be similarly annoyed. I ponder the absence of accountability. I know this is a little thing, but it bothers me. In part I’m bothered that no one, myself included, has cleaned these things up. Does no one care? Is it because they’re taped on all four sides, which makes them harder to remove? Would we make the effort if it were easier? However, I also wonder if others feel the way I do, that those who put them there have the responsibly to clean them up. They should have to do it.

Tuesday: The sign right outside of Basil has blown away, but most of the others are still around. Continuously trampled upon, they have begun to insinuate themselves into the landscape. Yesterday afternoon I considered manning up and ripping them off, but I held to my original aim to see how long their presence would be allowed. I’m hoping they’ll be gone soon. I want to take them off, but I’m immobilized by some grand idea that I should leave them there as a statement against those responsible. Maybe that’s my problem, not anyone else’s. I don’t know. I feel like crap about it to be honest. Writing this wasn’t as cathartic as I had hoped. I guess this article will circulate campus wide Thursday. If the signs are still there after that, I won’t know how to feel. I guess I’ll just remove them then. We’ll see how it goes.

viscof1@lasalle.edu