I appreciated the wisdom reflected in the Tuesday edition story, (“SNAP recipients assigned trash duty”) that came from the Panola County Board of Supervisors discussion with other officials about roadside litter.
Not so much the idea of using food stamp recipients who qualify and are able to pick up the trash. That’s worth a try but it is still a stop-gap measure.
This newspaper has railed against roadside litter for — 40 years? 50 years? Maybe longer.
Recent travels along county roads have reminded us that in spite of roadside litter removal by inmates and years of other efforts, we are still a trashy people in Panola County whose only concern is removing the junk from our vehicles with no regard for litter on the landscape and no sense of pride in its appearance.
Having the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) recipients pick up the litter can’t hurt and might help, but the only solution won’t come from picking it up after it’s thrown down. Nor will arresting and prosecuting people caught littering, though they certainly should be.
Road manager Lygunnah Bean said it well at Monday’s meeting: “I think we can educate it out.”
Then District Two Justice Court Judge Charlie Baglan backed up Bean’s statement by recalling that when his children were young and heard anti-smoking messages in school, they came home so critical of his smoking that it forced him to become a “closet smoker” before he gave it up altogether.
And that is the key. Panola County’s adults have proven themselves so callous to the unsightly litter along our roads that it’s time to give up on them (us) and time to focus on our kids and grandkids. Take this message to kids in school and make them so aware of unsightly roadside litter that every time a parent starts to throw trash from their vehicle, a kid will holler out, “SHAME ON YOU!”
Except that we will call it the “Shame On Us” campaign. Starting with today’s publication, The Panolian officially announces its “Shame on Us” campaign with a goal of simply embarrassing the present generation of us littering adults in front of our children and grandchildren.
Here’s how to join (we’re improvising here, so bear with us): just take photos of the litter-strewn roads and streets you travel every day and send them to publisher@panolian.com. (photography tip: get close and low so we can see in the photo the trash you’re seeing with your eyes. Be sure to identify location.) We’ll publish some on these pages and others on social media.
But we also need ideas on how to get anti-littering education into the schools with an emphasis equal to the anti-smoking efforts that shamed Judge Baglan into quitting tobacco. We need help from city and county government on this.
We also need help from the Panola Partnership. After all, this is an economic development issue, too. When almost 60,000 people visited this community during the Polar Express Train Ride, what kind of impression did we make with those who happened to wander onto roads leading into the rural countryside? The same is true with visitors who came for the UKC Winter Classic last month. Which is more valuable — property adjacent to neat, country roads or property that one must past littered roadsides to reach?
Join the Shame On Us campaign today. Who knows? Underneath all that trash we may find beautiful scenery in Panola County.
Just remember, we’re in it for the long haul. It’s taken over 40 years to get this far. Maybe we’ll get there before another 40 have passed.

SHAME ON US! Travelers of Davis Chapel Road whose trash (photo at right) has turned what could be a scenic drive
into a dump site.
(To join our Shame on Us litter awareness campaign, send your littered roadside photos to
publisher@panolian.com)