Where Goeth Community Pride?

Grass doesn't cut itself.

The brush along the sides of the road grows scraggly and into the power lines if the state or the electric company doesn't keep the trees trimmed back.

I am old enough to remember when the state mowed the grass during the growing seasons not just two times, but about every 10 days or so.

I am old enough to remember when the power company actively worked to keep the power lines clear of brush and trees so that if the winds blew hard, we didn't have outages.

I am also old enough to remember when the state planted flowers - yes, flowers! - in the medians so that drivers would have something lovely to look at as they breezed by.

We don't have that anymore. We're lucky now if the grass in the median is trimmed back twice a year. Whatever flowers bloom there are either wildflowers (or weeds imitating wildflowers), or leftovers from a time long past when oodles of daffodils danced merrily in the spring sunshine.

And forget about the power company or the telephone company ensuring that the trees aren't growing up in the power lines. Only brush and scrub trees along the rights of way where the lines run buffer the area between the road and a farm or a lawn these days, though I remember when they used to be kept clear. Neat as a whistle.

At some point, the leaders of the state determined that we needed to not spend tax dollars on ensuring our communities looked nice. Who cares if you can't see to pull out onto the road because the grass has grown so high one must be a giraffe in order to see over it? What's a few deaths compared to a couple of dollars, right? 

This cut jobs, too, which saved more money. Good move, said the leaders. Let's get rid of the fellows who mow, or the teams that clear the rights of way. We won't give the money to the taxpayers, though. We have big friends in the corporations who can use those dollars.

And of course, when other leaders took over, they didn't restore the monetary cuts to what by this time had become a frivolous and useless task, in their minds. 

We went the way of the dollar bill, sniffing along after the ass of the capitalist, watching the tax dollars shift to private companies that were supposed to do things like cut the grass or clear the roads of snow, but didn't do it very well (they failed so badly at the latter that the state has, for the most part, taken that back). Who needs flowers in the median, after all?

I do. You do. We all do. We all need to feel pride in our community, in the area we live in. We need to feel like part of something. Having decent roads and lovely waysides are a part of that. They offer a sense of completeness, a knowledge that someone cares about the area.

Cutting the grass in the median helps make us a caring society, not a bunch of greedy individuals grasping for the biggest grape in the pile of wrath we all are carrying around with us.

Bring back the mowers in the median. (They could be electric tractors so they'll be green and economical, really, they could!) Trim the grass so people can see to pull out of roadways. Have some pride in this state, for heaven's sake.

Virginia should not be bound by overgrowth and tangled weeds.

Let's bring back beauty and civility.

Come on, shake hands. We can do it!