by 
Sam Hosler
In 1971, the cartoonist Walt Kelly drew a two-panel set featuring Pogo and his friend Porkypine. The first panel shows them walking in a beautiful forest. Porkypine says, “Ah, Pogo, the beauty of the forest primeval gets me in the heart.” Pogo, stepping on a nail, replies, “It gets me in the feet, Porkypine.”
The second panel shows them gazing at the same forest, and the whole area is filled with old tires, cans, broken glass, and other items. “It is hard walking’ on this stuff,” says Porkypine. And Pogo, his head on his hands, says, “Yep, son, we have met the enemy and he is us.”
I feel the same way about the amount of wildcat dumping in this part of Arizona. Recently, the Kearny firing range was despoiled with someone’s trash, and more incidents of malicious trashing have been reported along the Gila River. Last year, people invaded private property on the high point of a wash in Kearny to dump a considerable amount of garbage.
The dumping often takes place in the most beautiful of areas, especially along the Gila and the San Pedro. When I see it, I think, “Why would someone want to foul their own place of recreation, much less spoil things for others?” And it gets worse, for on holiday weekends people leave fecal matter and waste tissue in full view. It’s not just a matter of broken glass and beer cans.
If the enemy is us, then the solution to the dilemma is to change our hearts and ways. Don’t countenance littering or dumping in any form. Don’t tolerate so much as a cigarette butt on the beach. An open window in a car is not an ash tray or the opening of a waste basket.
Cleaning up is costly and time-consuming. It can even be dangerous, because who knows what some of that dumped stuff is?
In Kearny, take advantage of the second Saturday free dumping at the transfer station. All county residents are entitled to landfill dumping vouchers at the Supervisor’s Office in Mammoth (just bring proof of residence). RAD, the new sanitation service, schedules large-item and brush pickups. Just call them at 520-881-4227 for information and to schedule a pickup.
And a big “thank you” to the people who clean up this mess on their own, and make the issue known to others. You are the solution… if the rest of us get on board.
On a happier note, when my wife and I bought our house in Kearny nineteen years ago, the first person we met was Mary Louise Eck, and we became next door neighbors. A better neighbor cannot be found. She and her family started Eck’s eatery uptown. The family grew up here. Mary Louise served as Town Librarian during the library’s formative years. She still serves on so many boards and committees that a full tally is impossible.
This Saturday, June 17, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., all of us are invited to mark Mary Louise’s 90th birthday with a reception in Ray Hall of Good Shepherd Church. Mary Louise desires no gifts, even though her whole life is a gift to us. Just bring yourself.
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