The inconvenience of not having garbage taken away every week is just that inconvenience. It is far from the crisis of major proportions that was portrayed in the media. To watch the lead stories on television news programs you would think that the world was about to end. The tube was bursting with anchorettes decrying the piles of garbage and pontificating (excuse the pun) on how the uncollected trash would affect the Popes visit. Just because the Pope doesnt have a wife who makes him take out the garbage, doesnt mean hes never seen any.
It is not a rare occurrence for the garbage not to be collected some weeks because of holidays. No one ever spoke of that being a crisis. Yet, within hours of the strike, green garbage bags started to appear on streets and in parks. Although some people are undoubtedly pigs, that really doesnt explain the huge piles of garbage immediately after the strike was called.
We live in a society where the nanny state is firmly entrenched and too many people like it that way because they always have governments to will tell them what to do and when to do it. There is no responsibility that way. And when the nanny goes on strike, all hell breaks loose. Urged on by the hysterical media, those same people panicked when the garbage collectors walked. Even though the city mothers provided instructions to double bag the garbage and keep it or take it to one of the many temporary sites, that was too onerous for much of the pampered populace. One young woman being interviewed at a temporary site, presumably there to drop off her garbage, whined to the cameras about her parents being senior citizens and not being able to dispose of their garbage. Helping her parents by taking their garbage to the "dump in the park" probably never occurred to her. We are a nation of whiners and wimps.
And then there are the politicians. Mayor Mel was screaming about kids not being able to use swimming pools in the sweltering heat. Yes, Mel its only a matter of time before these pool deprived kids start blowing themselves up and all the Cherie Blairites will be saying, "can you blame them?" Next there are the NDPers on council. They "care". They care about the homeless, the unemployed, the underemployed, the poor. Those are the people in society that have the most trouble disposing of their garbage. They are the ones who live above stores on main streets, and having no air conditioning, have to open their windows and smell the stench of garbage. They are the people who are sleeping on sidewalks next to ever increasing mounds of rotting garbage. You would think that these lefties, who claim to have a monopoly on compassion would hop right on their bicycles, go down to Queens Park and beg Ernie to introduce back to work legislation. Nope; cant upset the poor $40,000 + workers.
The limo lefties are always the first to complain about health hazards; air, water, food, leaf blowers, second hand smoke, third hand smoke, etc. But what health concerns did they raise about the potential of maggot infested garbage? None. They dont care about health they just dont like business, capitalism and free choice. But when health hazards are caused by unions, no possible danger can detract from solidarity forever.
Garbage on every street corner and in every park is not very pleasant but it can be educational.
Arthur Weinreb can be reached at: aweinreb@interlog.com
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