Sheriff Plans to Trash Anyone Who Litters His Turf

A Georgia sheriff thinks it’s criminal that folks feel so free to trash his picturesque county, and that’s got him spoiling for a fight. “We’re using binoculars, we’re using unmarked cars and stakeouts. We’ll use night vision glasses if it comes to that,” Sheriff Kenneth Seabolt said of his war on littering, now public enemy No. 1 in Lumpkin County. While Seabolt takes offense at the tourists who drop beer cans and fast-food wrappers as they pan for gold in this mining community, he’s also disgusted with what the locals are dumping in their backyards. He said that household garbage is spoiling some of the county’s best trout streams, and that he will patrol areas used by household dumpers and by youngsters who pull off the road to drink beer, leaving their cans behind them. Seabolt says he wants to make littering a memorable experience in his county. “They are going to come back to the jail, be fingerprinted and mug shot. They have to post $500 cash bond or property bond and they have to come back on their court date. . . . The realistic approach, being nice to people, has not worked.”

--Witches need holidays, too, says a Canadian who has filed a discrimination complaint with the government because he was denied paid leave for his religious celebrations. Charles Arnold, a secretary with the equine studies department of Humber College in Ontario, said he is a follower of the religion Wicca, which practices witchcraft and involves such ceremonies as nude worshiping and fireside celebrations of purification. “I think some people think it’s a con, that I’m trying to get a day off with pay for nothing,” Arnold said. He said he was denied paid leave for the Wiccan holidays of Beltane, a May 1 fire festival, and Samhain, a Nov. 1 celebration of the New Year.

--Three activists in Poland’s Solidarity movement were honored by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) with a human rights award established in honor of the late Robert F. Kennedy. However, none of the men were able to collect the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Human Rights Award, which has a $40,000 prize. Father Jerzy Popieluszko was murdered by Polish security police in October, 1984. Historian Adam Michnik and Solidarity activist Zbigniew Bujak feared leaving their homeland because authorities had refused to guarantee they could return.