Michael Swickard
Monday morning I noticed that on my elderly uncle’s block only a few garbage bins were empty, while, overwhelmingly, most were full. I realized immediately that the garbage truck must have come before most citizens put out their bins.
The Las Cruces ordinance does state that all garbage bins must be at the curb by 6 a.m. But there was a reason for this neighborhood’s collective inaction. We are creatures of habit and for a long time the garbage trucks always came on Monday at noon.
Several elderly neighbors looked forlornly at their still-full trash bins. To a person they said how rotten it was for the city was to jump the schedule six hours. They were out of luck.
So I called the solid waste department. Both people I spoke to were respectful as they asserted citizens must be “Dawn Patrol” ready. However, one of my questions was not answered:
Was the route driver aware something was wrong? As that garbage truck lumbered down the street not having to stop often the driver must have known two things: Most of the trash bins were not out, and, those people would be mad.
My unanswered question asks: How important is it to “our servants” in the government to not make us needlessly mad? Years ago when I returned to Las Cruces after being away two years I went to El Paso Electric to turn my power on. No problem. When I went to the city I was told to put up a deposit. I mentioned that El Paso Electric did not require a deposit. The clerk sneered, “Pay a deposit or do without.”
Well, I put up the deposit and then voted against every city bond for a while. Perhaps I was wrong to vote against the bonds just because a clerk treated me like a piece of garbage. But what was right about making a citizen needlessly mad?
Where I see this the most is that the traffic lights in my little slice of heaven are not timed to maximize flow. In fact, in an unscientific study of lights and my driving I noted that I only get green lights about 40 percent of the time and sometimes will go two greens and 14 reds in a trip. I would like to say that such inefficient use of my gas does not bother me, but I would be lying.
One time I was in a government area and overheard a computer tech say to another something like, “I just killed his e-mail, bet that makes him mad.” They both giggled that a user was going to sit at a computer and be frustrated with no recourse except to swallow their anger.
For many of us what is the final straw is that we realize many government workers think we were created as “giving units” to provide for their employment. Not all. I have some very good friends who work for different government agencies. They assure me they understand that the money comes from my pocket to them.
I also am not writing about when the police write a legitimate ticket and the offender blows off steam. Wrong doers will be mad. I am focused on government workers who purposely do things that they know will anger us without a real good reason.
A day of reckoning
Then-Colonel Dwight Eisenhower wrote his brother Milton on the day that World War II began, “Hitler should beware the fury of an aroused democracy.”
Fast forward to 2010. Government workers who anger citizens without good reason should beware the fury of citizens who have been sneered at once too often. There is a day of reckoning. This year politicians who have not been listening to the citizens have been swept from office. As incumbents have found, citizens who are furious can make changes.
I do not know if this is true since I was not on the truck nor am I friends with any of the garbage drivers, but perhaps that garbage driver who was six hours early Monday morning may have snickered to himself about the soon-to-be mad people.
I wonder if the city council, mayor and city manager also find it funny.
Swickard is a weekly columnist for this site. You can reach him at michael@swickard.com.
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