Some people don’t want to remain anonymous

February 14, 2008

To the Editor:

Those who write in support of the proposed Sparta Garbage Authority are really amazing. They say the Council’s plan is good, and needed, because it will be good for the majority. Why good? They claim it works to lower the monthly garbage cost for those who want it. That’s good for the common good, they say, so do it.

Case closed? Ignore that a government-run town garbage agency raises the monthly garbage bill of us taxpayers who do not need or want it? They look forward, I guess, to big trucks rumbling down their quiet streets twice a week in search of garbage that might not even be there.

I notice many, many Sparta taxpayers have not thought more carefully on this. People are sleeping, unaware of consequences massing just over the horizon. I say, time to think about this garbage thing more carefully.

Actually, I been doing my part for the common good, you know. Big time. I have never been a student at, or sent a child to any Sparta public school. Yet for oh, so many years I continue to subsidize that system with the bulk of my huge property taxes. Only thing I get for my money is the warm and fuzzy satisfaction of being a good citizen working for the common good. Oh, and a few years ago I got to enter the new high school for a free flu shot. I think about that, mostly when I have to parse money to pay my other bills, you know, for food, fuel, the mortgage, taking out the garbage.

So, do people who want a new Town Garbage Authority really want everyone to conform to the town council’s plan, for the greater benefit, as they say, of the community? Regardless of individual freedoms or rights? Like in a commune? Hmm, say, bro, isn’t that also what communism stands for? Losing freedom for the common good?

What about freedom to choose? No wonder they sometimes write in as anonymous.

Myron Leski, Sparta