April 12, 2008
800 or so pounds of trash removed from Lee Memorial Park
Members of Boy Scout Troop 180 and Petersburg’s Breakfast Kiwanis Club teamed up bright and early this a.m. to help clean up the immediate area of the Lee Park ball fields and pavilion as well as the watershed leading to Willcox Lake.
Troops received their marching orders from Brandon C. “Brandy” Martin, city purchasing agent and community cleanliness advocate. Amassed was an estimated 800 pounds of old tires, traffic cones, bottles and plastic products.
Sad. That’s just sad. BUT KUDOS to those that got out there and cleaned up other peoples trash!!!!
Photo of some of the 800 pound contribution, and some of the cleaner-uppers!
What I can’t understand is why so few people use the park for its intended purpose. Lots more condoms and drug paraphernalia out there than baseballs and softballs. We’ve been up there several times to walk the dog, and some ne’er-do-well slithers off almost every time when they see us coming. Does anyone know if any ball leagues actually use those fields? And while I’m on the subject, does anyone know why Willcox Lake is not open to the public?
Can’t answer those questions, but the folks eager to see a dog park in town have approached the Willcox Watershed Conservancy about the possibility of their allocating some corner of the park for an enclosed dog park. One of the benefits would be that the park then would be used regularly, at least the area immediate to the dog park (well, at least during the day/evening).
When segregation changed to integration, some folk thought that instead of sharing with “those people” they would shut the Wilcox Watershed Conservancy down. That was the racist Petersburg community’s two cents worth of input to “segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” the rally cry from racist Governor George Wallace.
In some parts of Virginia entire school systems shut down rather than integrate with “those people.”
Compared to the lynchings, burnings alive, shootings, drownings, spitting, dogs, water hoses, “we hate you,” slogans…. Petersburg was somewhat civil, ahem.
Now that time has healed a few wounds, and examples of civility from many of “those people,” have relieved some of the fear, hatred and ignorance of the ruling class race, perhaps the belief that all of “those people,” are not “ne’er-do-well” fold who slithers. Not that post #3 suggested such, however, it is probably the case for others…. then just perhaps, those who can, will work to open the area once again so that all may enjoy together and together rid ourselves of those creepy crawlers of ne’er-do-wells who come to the park ne’er to do well.
Neighborhood and community watch groups unite! See you at the round tables of discussion and in the footwork of action.
Clarification — I think Akin meant that Willcox Lake was closed to the public, not the Willcox Watershed Conservancy (a relatively new foundation with nonprofit status that was established as a result of the recent efforts of the Petersburg Garden Club, consistent with the MOU signed with the city in 2001 and the master plan approved by the city in 2004). The closure of the Lake (following one of the first civil rights suits of its kind in the Commonwealth) is documented in Lee Memorial Park’s registration form (as Willcox Lake is part of LMP, and in turn so is its history).
Also, Akin, there are numerous accounts of the park being used as a trash bin (see the photo above) and the park has been the target of vandalism, so yes, ne’er do wells of whatever (probably various) unidentified backgrounds do make an appearance from time to time. I infer the questions above to suggest that if the park were actually used regularly (for its intended purpose)… at the lake, at the baseball field, etc. … perhaps there would be less trash/vandalism going on.
Some additional clarifying details are presented in this post and thread
“When segregation changed to integration, some folk thought that instead of sharing with “those people” they would shut the Wilcox Watershed Conservancy down. That was the racist Petersburg community’s two cents worth of input to “segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” the rally cry from racist Governor George Wallace.
In some parts of Virginia entire school systems shut down rather than integrate with “those people.”
Compared to the lynchings, burnings alive, shootings, drownings, spitting, dogs, water hoses, “we hate you,” slogans…. Petersburg was somewhat civil, ahem.
Now that time has healed a few wounds, and examples of civility from many of “those people,” have relieved some of the fear, hatred and ignorance of the ruling class race, perhaps the belief that all of “those people,” are not “ne’er-do-well” fold who slithers. Not that post #3 suggested such, however, it is probably the case for others…. then just perhaps, those who can, will work to open the area once again so that all may enjoy together and together rid ourselves of those creepy crawlers of ne’er-do-wells who come to the park ne’er to do well.
Neighborhood and community watch groups unite! See you at the round tables of discussion and in the footwork of action.”
You are right atkin s. Petersburg has a SHAMEFUL past and we see the fruits of it everyday here. You are also right to point out that it is not quite as shameful as alabama’s (BTW Wallace, very late in life, said something to the effect of “I tried to give speeches about economic growth, education, etc … and people just yawned. It wasn’t until I started saying [forbiden word!, forbiden word!] That people started stomping their feet.”) But it is shameful and tragic nonetheless.
But most of us do not have to live there. Most of us do not have to pass the poison down to other generations.
When I was 18, I went to a MLK event in upstate NY. I was one of few non-african american faces there. I learned a valuable lesson when we were all asked to join hands with whomever we happened to be sitting with. The black person on my left did, no problem, the black man to my right would not. The guy sitting to HIS right actually REACHED AROUND the other guy to join hands with me (this was rather awkward)
The lesson was this: there are grown adults who are willing to take out their frustrations on an innocent child, who had nothing to with injustice, and who wants to help, and there are those like the other guy who will risk a little awkwardness to send the right message to young people.
From my experience, black kids are getting a LOT more bad messages about race than white kids are, these days.
Atkin, I’d really be happy if you could take some pictures of some darker complectioned faces removing trash from the park. The ne’er do wells ARE there in lee park, and it makes no sense to get offended because they seem to have coffee complextions, more often than not. After all, they are 80% of the population here. I have seen african americans there, enjoying the park, walking the dog, having a picnic, etc… but the far more common thing is to see people who seem to be up to something furtive, including city workers catching a nap!
I am sure that if more decent people, of whatever color, took advantage of the wonderful asset the park is, the ne’er- do-wells would likely go somewhere else.
And, if you are worried that I will ever make the tragic error of mistaking a decent, good-clean-fun-loving person in lee park as ne’ver-do-well just because they have a dark complextion, then maybe you should make sure I see some dark complextioned people volunteering to pick up trash there. I think since we are all equal, that I should see about 79 brown faces for every 18 “white” ones. Heck, I’d settle for 50:50.
Thank you post #6 I regret the error. I in no way want to infer that the Watershed Conservancy or the current crop of interested folk had anything to do with anything during segregation. I was merely answering the question by post #3 of, “….does anyone know why Willcox Lake is not open to the public?”
Does anyone know of any other reasons why it has not been open to the public in fifty years??? Certainly it isn’t because of the trash.
“I’d really be happy if you could take some pictures of some darker complectioned faces removing trash from the park.”
Post #9, I am definitely not here to make you happy, so don’t hold your breath waiting for me to come up with some picutes of “dark faces” cleaning up. If you don’t know by now that people of color have been cleaning up for over four hundred years, then a few pictures will not help you.
“(BTW Wallace, very late in life, said something to the effect of “I tried to give speeches about economic growth, education, etc … and people just yawned. It wasn’t until I started saying [forbiden word!, forbiden word!] That people started stomping their feet.”)
Is there a meaning in that ANYWHERE?
“From my experience, black kids are getting a LOT more bad messages about race than white kids are, these days.”
If you could prove that I’d cut my dreads. Oh yeah, I already did that.
You can’t prove it anyway. :) :)
It is great to remove 800 pounds of trash from Lee Park. Thanks. Now the real work begins.
The “meaning” in Wallace’s statements from later in life was that people get the government they deserve. I do not know if his coming to the foot of the cross as he was dying was an attempt to paint over his past, genuine conversion or a statement that he really was just being politically expedient at the time but it does show how playing to the crowd can be a bad thing.
People need to not accept politics as usual and persons running for office need to be up front about what they think, actually represent the people who elected them and stick to their principles.
When did people stop taking pride in where they lived, I mean really? I am by no means generalizing as opposed to wondering out loud. Keith and I were talking about this the other day after driving around town seeing trash in peoples yards, on the street/curb in front of houses, etc.
We always pick up trash we see in/around our yard - simply because … well, we don’t want TRASH around our property. It looks nasty and it’s not the image I, personally, want to put forth. On the way to work this morning, Jefferson St. had lots of crap at the curb….it looked like people were cleaning out their vehicles and throwing soda cans/bottles, McDonalds bags, chip bags, etc. just on the curb - there was even a Natural Ice bottle stood up. WTF is that about??
I mean you may not be able to afford a super, nice house (God knows, I would personally LOVE one of those rennovated homes on High St. or one of those huge piles of Brick on Westover) BUT wouldn’t you want to keep what you do have looking its best?
And honestly, what is up with ratty old upholstered furniture on porches. It’s not only porches either, driving down Jefferson, if you look in that “ravine” area across from the park, it looks like people threw old sofas and other trash/furniture into the woods…
I don’t understand the ‘just drop it, someone else will pick it up’ mindset I suppose. The other day while walking one of our dogs, I was beind a couple of young ladies and one of them, after finishing her soda, just dropped the plasic bottle in the grass by the sidewalk. When I said ‘I’m sorry, you dropped your bottle miss.’ She coped an attitude and said she knew she dropped it and it was none of my business. After I made the comment that it WAS my business and that I’d be happy to have a police officer explain to her that there are fines for littering - she begrudgingly picked it up.
Probably ticked her off that I followed her for so long but she was going my way…so I couldn’t help it =) She may have thrown it down after she was outta sight but I hope I made a point.
Sorry about the rant - littering and picking up trash is sort of a pet peeve.
*puts away soap box*
For the record, when I talked about some ne’er-do-well slithering away, I did not imply anything about the color of the ne’er-do-wells’ skin. Some of them have been black, some have been white, not that it matters. I’m talking about PEOPLE who litter, do drugs, have inappropriate sexual relations, etc, in what should be a community resource and public park. The content of the character versus the color of the skin? As some have already suggested, I think the way to encourage appropriate use of a facility is to discourage inappropriate use. How do you stop weeds from taking over a yard? Plant a good strong grass and cultivate it, and it will do the rest. I hear you, Akin, picking up some trash is nice, but it doesn’t CHANGE anything. People who care have to stop conceding the world to people who don’t. Surely there are some youth baseball or softball leagues who would like to have a nice facility to play in? Surely there are others who want to be able to swim or fish in Willcox Lake? The reason Willcox Lake initially closed is a sorry shame, but it’s no reason not to agree on that and move on in a healing, positive direction.
That’s right kristy. This place is a political minefield. The ne’er do well’s in DOWNTOWN are often white, but I don’t think the white goofballs are smart enough to know where lee park is.
Hope that doesn’t make me a racist.
We have to do the very opposite of what Alzena seems to want, get more decent people in petersburg to counter the influence of the negative, and not worry about the skin color of the newcomers.