Dear Editor

Dear Editor:

I am probably the only one that is sad to see all of our snow melted away. The winter months have kept our mother earth protected under a soft white blanket. Although, this year it was densely packed! But still, everything looked beautiful outside. The snow has now receded from our roadside ditches and it has uncovered the shameful truth that was buried beneath it. There are some people in our community that love to throw litter out the windows of their cars.

I am sorry to tell you this, but we can’t blame anyone else for this problem. We are the only ones traveling up and down the side roads like Raquette Point Road and Cook Road. Those ditches are covered with trash. Go ahead and drive down those roads and see for yourself.

Every year the Akwesasne Task Force on the Environment (ATFE) organizes the Annual Roadside Cleanup. This event was never meant to just to give people a chance to show their community spirit by cleaning up the ditches. It is meant to draw attention to the fact that some people in our community don’t care how they are treating mother earth. It was hoped that those people littering would realize the harm they were causing and change their ways. It doesn’t look like our message is getting through, because the ATFE has had this event for about 17 years now and it looks like we will be doing it for years to come. The children that were littering 17 years ago are probably teaching their disrespectful ways to their own children now.

At this time every year we all talk about our littering problem and discuss plans for putting up anti-littering signs and fining people for littering. Unfortunately, these plans never go anywhere, because we all lose interest soon after the event. We have to do more. We need to make those people littering stop and think about what they are doing. There is no good reason for this to keep happening. What possible reason would they have for doing this? I hope they are not thinking that the litter will get picked up eventually, or that someone else can get the 5 cent deposit. If these are your reasons, well let me tell you my friend, those are some really dumb reasons to do it.

The point I am trying to make here is that we all need to slow down and think about our actions. It’s our actions that define us. Before we even speak to others on our unique culture perspective and the hardships that have been placed on us from outside entities, we need to first realize that we need to practice what we preach.

The ATFE is asking for your help again with this year’s roadside cleanup which will be held May 3rd. We would appreciate some volunteers to help us out with organizing the event and also to help set things up on the day of the event. The ATFE also needs volunteers to help out with the Free Tree and Seed Give Away which will be held May 4th. Contact the SRMT Environment Division to find out how you can help.

Sken:nen/Peace

Craig Arquette