The Solution Is Us

As read during the June 12, 2012 Harrisburg City Council Legislative Session by Councilor Sandra Reid, Chair of City Council Public Works Committee.

Good Evening,

Over the past six months I have taken personal attention to the level of trash and blight that plague’s this city.  I have spoken with the mayor and several department heads concerning this issue.  I have worked with my colleagues on Council to come up with some solutions to this problem.  On Thursday, June 14, 2012, this Council will host a town hall meeting at the Allison Hill Community Center (1524 Walnut Street) from 6:00 to 8:00pm. This will be an opportunity to address this problem head on, provide some solutions, and get positive feedback from the public.  This is a first step to improving the quality of life in our neighborhoods.  We understand that this monumental problem and it will not be solved overnight, however; it will open the channel of communication between this Council and the community.  We will not focus on what we cannot do, but concentrate our efforts on the things we can.  Trash affects us collectively and collectively we need to resolve this issue.

Everyday our children walk past rundown houses, overgrown fields, and trash thrown throughout their neighborhoods.  They play in alleys that at night are patrolled by rodents, possums, and skunks that feed on the trash left for them.  We have become a community so immune to trash that we walk past it going into our homes.  We tell ourselves that this is not our problem and that “someone” should clean up this mess.  There is an overall sense of hopelessness in the City when it concerns trash.  I am here today to let the residents of this city know that there is hope and that together we can make a difference.

Fifty-one years ago President Kennedy gave a call for action to this nation.  He told us, “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” Today I want to say to you ask not what your city can do for you but what you can do for your city.  Webster’s defines “Civic Duty” as the social force that binds you to the courses of action demanded by that force.  “We must instill a sense of duty in our children”; “every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty” John D. Rockefeller Jr.  So I call upon you, the citizens, to stand up and fulfill your civic duty and roll up your sleeves and work together to solve this problem.