Trash everywhere in Tangipahoa

Daily Star Photographer
As the Daily Star photographer, I travel about 1,000 miles a month covering events and stories in Tangipahoa Parish for the newspaper. I was handed an assignment on July 15 to get some art for the litter court story. My supervisors told me to find some trash in the parish.
I couldn’t think of an easier assignment. I see trash every time I get on the road. I often gather pictures of trash for the newspaper because I was told that I could always turn in trash photos.
Some areas are a little cleaner than others but there is trash everywhere.
I randomly selected to travel from U.S. Highway 190 up Morris Road. There was plenty of trash to be found along that highway. I didn’t go above the Tangipahoa River bridge because I had shot enough art at that point. The photo I used for the litter court story was of two abandoned bags of garbage. I’m not talking about a little refuse like a bag from a fast food restaurant but two full fledged 30- or 40-gallon trash bags.
I wandered a little stretch of that highway within a half mile of the bridge. The area beside the bridge is noticeable from the bridge because someone spray painted a tree on the bank. A huge trunk painted from the ground up about five feet. Graffiti is a form of pollution to me because graffiti detracts from the natural beauty of the site. There were piles of discarded beer bottles on the beach. There were piles of trash heaped into the bushes.
I have on occasion gone to various points along the river for photos of swimmers, tubers or for a story on a drowning. I usually talk to the people that are there.
Many times the people there get defensive about having the right to be there. I have been schooled on the civil rights of the river patrons I photograph. I am always questioned about why am I photographing the river, people at the river or the places where people were injured or killed on the river. I have been told that to photograph some river patrons is a violation of their constitutional rights.
I usually photograph them anyway.
The people I encounter at the swimming holes are never the ones that leave their trash at the river, they say. And then one day, I find the Holy Grail of stereotypical Southern backward ideology nailed to the side of a tree beside U.S. 190 at the Tangipahoa River on the east side of the bridge. The first time I saw it, I only noticed the lower sign that read, “NO N…”, but when I went returned I noticed another sign on top , “WHITE TRASH BEACH, OPEN TO PUBLIC.”
There are those in this area that believe “The Jerry Springer Show” is reality television. And from this evidence nailed to the innocent willow, I deduce, the proud white trash people who can’t spell are polluting our roadsides and rivers. Thanks for making my job so easy when I have to get photos of trash Tangipahoa litterbugs and graffiti painters. Your marks and carelessness are noticed.
A litter court may be part of the solution. We as concerned citizens need to provide another part. Law officers have to provide another part but then enforcement might step on some toes of the “good ole boys” that got someone elected.