Dear Source:
CLEAN, the Crucian Litter Elimination Action Network, coordinated by the St. Croix Environmental Association (SEA), in which voluntary groups of participants scour the roads and beaches of our little island, took place for the umpteenth time last weekend April 26th and 27th. Individuals from all walks and all estates join together to clear the roads in anticipation of the Ironman Triathlon. You might have seen them along the roadsides, sweaty, sore, and sunburnt trudging through ditches, guts, and garbage pulling it out and bagging it up. You may have seen their triumphant boasts on Facebook; you may have heard their victorious whoops and hollers from your yard. Or you may have noticed the incredible green beauty of our Crucian space that is so frequently masked by our trash.
These volunteers and all of SEA’s staff, sponsors, and donors deserve recognition. They each do it out of sense of duty, sense of pride, and in return for all that our island gives us. A round of written applause to all of you and to each of you. You deserve our communal praise.
And you deserve more. You deserve a populace that enjoys the cleanliness. You deserve a citizenry that appreciates the magnificence of a view unspoiled by plastic water bottles. You deserve a civilian force that seeks to keep the beauty of this place awake. You deserve to see your hard work appreciated and continued.
Less than a week after CLEAN, I am dismayed, disgruntled, and utterly disappointed in the waste already accumulating on these recently cleaned miles of roadside. Driving the south shore road, a road that is not heavily trafficked nor heavily used, you will see, fewer than five days later, plastic water bottles, chip bags, beer bottles, soda cans, and styrofoam boxes. These are not articles the CLEAN participants missed, these are freshly discarded. These are articles that communicate our communal apathy. These are relics that speak of our skewed notions of economic vitality. These are reminders of our wasteful habits. This is garbage that tells our tourists to never return.
In this time more than any other, it is time for all islanders whether born here or come here to beautify our place. It is time for us to remind our family members that tossing trash is a crime against ourselves. It is time for us to shame those who continue to dirty our island. It is time and it is up to us.
Jenn Travis, St. Croix