Mailbag: Time for some trash talk

The older I get, my tolerance for the misbehavior of others is getting lower and lower. If I were to list my top 10 issues when it comes to civility and what it takes to be a good citizen in our city, graffiti and trash are on the top of my hit list.

I belong to a local gym that provides parking in a parking structure. Most of the time I have no complaints, but one recent evening when I arrived, I noticed someone had dumped the contents of their dinner on the ground. Papers, cups and uneaten food were spread out on the concrete, most of it squashed by cars driving over it.

I checked in and asked the front desk if someone could clean it up.

Gym: “That is the responsibility of the facilities. They monitor the parking lot for trash.”

Me: “Most likely it was dumped by one of the members here, it reflects poorly on the club.”

Gym: “Sorry man, can’t do anything about it.”

I headed toward the locker room and saw the janitor. I asked the nice young fellow the same question. “Not my job” he said. Feeling frustrated, I asked him if I could have a plastic bag to clean it up myself. He complied.

Ninety minutes later, I returned to my car, and the mess was still there but only more squashed. I proceeded to clean it up.

This not the first time I’ve done this. I usually wait a period of days to see if things get taken care of by the responsible party but inevitably I end up doing it myself. I’ve seen people’s trash dumped from their cars at parks, schools, behind businesses, in alleys and the streets in my neighborhood. I’ve driven behind cars along Harbor Boulevard and watched as someone unloaded their trash while driving down the street. It sickens me people behave this way and have an “I don’t give a damn” attitude. Their message: “It’s someone else’s job to clean up after me, don’t you know how special I am?” I’ve also noticed how combative people get when you confront them. It never goes well and can be dangerous, so I restrain myself.

This gym is considered one of the better clubs in town and I’d say most of the members are under 30 years old and well educated. During my workout, I thought about the trash and how the parents of these people failed so badly that their kids feel it is perfectly OK to dump all their trash onto the driveway. Why do they feel it is OK? How selfish and narcissistic do you have to be to do that?

B. Friedland
Costa Mesa

Disappointed by H.B. vote

Once again, the city of Huntington Beach has become the laughingstock of the county if not the state with the passage of its City Council majority’s MAGA-inspired charter amendments. These anti-democratic insults to our intelligence should be vigorously rebuffed by the county and state in addition to already outraging a sizable segment of the community. Our civic reputation is in tatters, and yet the conservatives in control turn a blind eye to all negative impacts and various repercussions of their actions. The slide of Surf City into autocracy is pronounced and could get worse if we don’t receive outside relief.

Tim Geddes
Huntington Beach

Censorship spreads at library

There has been constant and overwhelming public criticism over many months regarding the Huntington Beach City Council majority‘s insistence on banning books in our public libraries and appointing a “book review board” of untrained individuals to decide which books will be available for us to read. There have also been repeated calls for transparency about the majority’s plans for this undesirable action. These calls from the public have been met with complete silence from the majority.

Nevertheless, H.B. Central Library librarians have been forced to move all teen and young adult books to a dingy room that is off-limits to anyone under 18, like the entire adult book stacks. And the teen section, where students used to gather to do homework and access books for their schoolwork has been eliminated. Teens can now only frequent the library’s children’s section; I suppose to sit on the rug with the toddlers for “story time.” All library cards for residents under 18 are being canceled, and young people’s parents must come to the library personally to establish their child’s access level. Without an “all-access” card authorized by a parent, kids under 18 will only be able to look at books in the children’s section. One wonders where books like dictionaries, encyclopedias and the Bible will be sequestered due to content that some people with extreme sensitivity think is too graphic for residents under 18.

Those of us who value the learning experiences that books provide must continue to speak out against this absurd and dangerous effort to dumb down our populace.

Diane Bentley
Huntington Beach