Thinking Out Loud: The New Mason-Dixon Line and The Perfect Trash Storm

The New Mason-Dixon Line:

I am so proud that Marylanders voted to approve the Civil Marriage Protection Act and the "Dream Act".  We really are one of the most progressive states in the Union, more so than even Massachusetts.  (I doubt we'd ever send a guy like Scott Brown to Washington to represent us - especially when he was filling Ted Kennedy's seat!)

Needless to say, I am also ecstatic that President Obama won reelection and that Maryland was firmly in his camp from the beginning.  The man is going down in history as one of our great presidents, believe me on that. 

I think it is safe to say that, despite our long history, Maryland is now officially a Northern state, at least in political attitude.  In fact, I think we can redraw the Mason-Dixon Line somewhere along I-95, south of Washington, D.C., in Virginia. 

The Perfect Trash Storm:

Well, it was bound to happen when a city of over 600,000 people only collects regular trash one day a week.  We had the perfect trash storm in areas with Tuesday regular trash pick up. 

Last week was Hurricane Sandy and the city didn't collect trash.  Luckily, most people didn't put their trash out.  But, since many people are uninformed about the goings on of their city government (witness the low voter turnout in the last mayoral election), they didn't put their trash out for the rescheduled Saturday trash collection. 

So, this past Tuesday, the regular trash day, again, many people put their trash out.  Why wouldn't you? 

Well, the reason you wouldn't is because it was Election Day and Election Day is rightfully a government holiday in Baltimore City. 

So no trash pickup, again. 

Now, all over Southwest Baltimore, trash is piled high, as if there was some kind of trash strike.  The rats are loving it.

I emailed the Mayor and every member of our City Council with the following suggestion: 

If regular trash day is missed for whatever reason, the next collect day (recycling), will be a regular trash day (where they take any trash that is put out). 

Better yet, get rid of the one-and-one trash collection (one day regular trash, one day recycling) and replace it with two days regular trash collection and one day recycling, every other week. 

In a city of this size, you can not expect it to stay clean and rat free if you are only collecting regular trash once a week.  It just won't happen.   

Back From Breather:

I took some time off from making public comments before the election because I was just so tired of all the mindless chatter that was taking place on the cable news networks and public forums on the Internet.  But now that the storm has passed, I feel like it is safe to stick my head up out of my cellar door.