Earth-Conscious Security Guard Goes Out With the Trash
I suppose the battle for Planet Earth has to have a few casualties.
Maybe Howard Robbins, 24, is one of them.
Robbins is studying business administration at Mesa College. He has also been working as a $5-an-hour guard for ABM Security Co. in San Diego.
Last week, with preparations for Earth Day in the air, he saw something that set off his environmental alarm.
He was making his nightly rounds at Ball Systems Engineering on the fifth floor of the Naiman Tech Center building in Sorrento Valley. He saw several dozen phone books set out for disposal, marked “trash” not “recycling.”
He left a note suggesting that the books be recycled. The next night he found that his note had been discarded and the books were again marked as trash.
Robbins left a stronger note:
“Right, we can just cut down more trees to make new phone books. Too bad our planet may be destroyed because no one wants to recycle. I’ll take them in myself. Some people care.”
With that, he took the books to a recycling center in Pacific Beach.
The note came into the possession of Sam Gilchrist, who works for Naiman Co. as the tech center’s building engineer. He contacted ABM and asked that Robbins be transferred.
“I did not think it was a professional action on the part of a security guard to tell a tenant how to run their business,” Gilchrist said.
Robbins called a radio talk show. ABM then fired him for violating a company ban on talking to the media.
An attorney for Ball, which develops computer software for the Department of Defense, insists that the company never sought to have Robbins transferred or fired.
Gilchrist says he may agree with Robbins’ recycling sentiments but that security guards still cannot be allowed to upbraid tenants. ABM Security isn’t talking.
“If I could do it over again, I’d still take the phone books to the recycler,” Robbins said. “But I don’t think I’d leave a note.”
The Big Story Down Under
You can quote me.
* How important is the America’s Cup to the Kiwis?
Brendon Burns, chief political/diplomatic reporter from The (Christchurch) Press, is in San Diego this week to cover the possible court decision regarding the Cup.
Also, lesser stories like Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney’s views on New Zealand’s anti-nuclear policy.
* Municipal Judge Ron Domnitz is set to appear today on “Good Morning America” to argue against electronic bracelets in lieu of jail for criminals:
“Three-quarters of these people are repeat drunk drivers who should be in jail.”
* Sean Lomax, the Whistling Sailor from San Diego, placed second at the National Whistling Championship in Louisburg, N.C.
His “Barber of Seville” and “Superman” were blown away by a North Carolina man with “Rhapsody in Blue” and “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.”
* I did my part for Earth Day.
I replaced a divot at the Rancho Bernardo Inn golf course.
Was Logo a Healthy Choice?
The logo of the 1990 Census looks familiar to David Evans, a partner in a Solana Beach marketing communications firm. It should.
The census logo has seven concentric circles with shading on top and bottom. So does a logo Evans developed and trademarked in 1986 for the Center for Health Promotion, sponsored by Beverly Hills Medical Center. He was with a San Diego firm back then.
Evans says that, after 22 years in the business, he realizes that many logos and ad designs look alike.
“But the similarity here is more than coincidental,” he said. He’s amused but has no plans to sue.
The U.S. Census Bureau got the logo through the National Advertising Council. Officials are unsure how it happened that the census logo resembles a logo from a health center specializing in holistic medicine.
One explanation: In 1986, the health center logo was featured in Graphics Design magazine, from whence designers often get ideas.
