Merely declaring a war on litter accomplishes nothing

Now, don’t get me wrong.

Being clear about one’s values is fundamental. It’s the essence of the adage, “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”

After all, without a guiding philosophy, individuals and societies drift aimlessly, reacting rather than acting with purpose. This is important because, as Mahatma Gandhi once explained, “Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny.”

So, if you stand for free speech, for school choice or for limited government, that’s a declaration of your values, and those values will serve as a benchmark against which your actions will be measured. But merely stating your values is easy, right? How hard is it to proclaim a commitment to helping the poor, defend our freedoms, or be outraged and offended about any number of issues?

Politicians do it all the time, though, and social media is filled with declarations of what people are for or against. But if meaningful, well-planned actions do not follow these words, they are empty. This is where many individuals and movements falter — they mistake rhetoric for results.

So when I saw the Caddo Parish Commission extend the proclamation of its “War on Litter” from 2024 (I didn’t even know we were at war), I was somewhat beside myself.

What does this “War on Litter” actually accomplish? Nothing.

Absolutely nothing. No new enforcement measures are proposed with this proclamation, and there are no consequences, no incentives and no penalties. There’s not even some catchy slogan or social media graphic — this is just a glorified lecture! It’s government standing on its soapbox (again), wagging its finger at the citizens and demanding they do what they’ve already been taught since childhood — to throw their trash in a trash bin, to show courtesy and respect to their fellow citizens by not treating your community like a scrap pile.

We’ve heard public service campaigns like “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute” and “Keep America Beautiful” for decades. Remember the local “Keep it classy, don’t be trashy” campaign? And yet, here come the Caddo Parish bureaucrats, patting themselves on the back, pretending they’ve just solved a real issue by passing a meaningless resolution.

And again, don’t get me wrong: Littering is a real issue. It’s not a “left” or “right” issue; it’s a quality of life issue for us all. Littering clogs our drains, pollutes our water supply and serves as a magnet for illegal dumping, diminishing the appearance of neighborhoods and our public spaces. Left unchecked, businesses start moving out, tourists stop coming altogether, criminals move in, and we start losing one neighborhood after another. So yes, littering is a real issue.

However, both Caddo Parish and the state of Louisiana have littering laws with criminal and civil penalties for both intentional and unintentional littering. In Caddo Parish, for example, repeat littering offenders are punishable by a fine of $500 or can be imprisoned for not more than 30 days, or both. Under state law, a littering offense can lead to having your driver’s license suspended for one year and being sentenced to serve 80 hours of community service.

So my question is this: With these laws already in the books, hasn’t the “war on litter” already been declared? And if littering remains a pervasive problem, maybe it’s not because we haven’t declared a “war on litter” or issued more press releases, but because we haven’t enforced our laws in the first place.

If you really want to solve the litter problem, spend $1 million or so on the law enforcement personnel needed to enforce the laws we already have on the books. Catch people and fine them. Make the punishment real and send a message that Caddo Parish is a community where the law matters, blight is banned, and cleanliness is still next to godliness.

Some elected officials can’t do that. That would be too mean. Instead, they sit in a taxpayer-funded meeting, virtue-signaling to one another about how much they care about litter while accomplishing nothing. It’s classic bureaucratic nonsense — spend hours discussing a resolution, pat yourselves on the back, and then move on to the next meaningless gesture.

The responsibility of elected officials is more than just pointing out, in the words of Teddy Roosevelt, “how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.”

No, the responsibility of elected officials is to create results, not merely more rhetoric.

Louis R. Avallone is a Shreveport businessman, attorney and author of “Bright Spots, Big Country, What Makes America Great.” He is also a former aide to U.S. Representative Jim McCrery and editor of The Caddo Republican. His columns have appeared regularly in 318 Forum since 2007. Follow him on Facebook, on Twitter @louisravallone or by e-mail at louisavallone@mac.com, and on American Ground Radio at 101.7FM and 710 AM, weeknights from 6 - 7 p.m., and streaming live on keelnews.com.