What in sandhill is going on in Bladen County?

No, not the election allegations. No, not the unsettled businesses over school calendars. No, not even the water at White Lake.

All are mighty important, so don’t misunderstand.

We’re talking trash. And we have had enough. It’s time the citizens of Bladen County band together and bring this problem to a screeching halt.

We look bad, folks.

As the season of tourism beckons before we know it, guests will come and they’ll see us with all our shame. We’re trashy people.

When county commissioners met for a retreat this week, they heard several presentations. Among them, the sheriff stood up and sounded the alarm.

He’s got a program whereby inmates take care of roadside litter, and it’s a good thing. Lord only knows how much would be piled across our 900 square miles otherwise.

He named one road with a problem. Then he called another road. And another. And another. A commissioner mentioned a road. The affirmative nod was returned.

“I don’t know where it’s coming from,” he told them.

The problem’s significance is such that in some places, whole bags of trash are being left. Apparently, the dumper knows a roadside crew will come get it, or someone on Florence cleanup duty. Other places have the indication of things discarded from a passing motorist.

Still other pieces of trash probably just flew out the back of a pickup, the driver never knowing until perhaps sometime later when arriving at a destination. Or not. This happens in country life, so we get it.

“What about those signs, the no dumping signs?” a commissioner asked.

The state doesn’t do those anymore, was the reply. Probably too many of them got relocated to behind the toilets in college dorm rooms. That might just be a 20th century thing, we’re not really sure.

This much we are sure of — it will take all of us doing a little bit to help make the bigger problem go away. Whether our civic groups, churches or school clubs adopt a highway, or whether the good folks surging new energy into Keep Bladen Beautiful find successful strategies, no one person or body of people will fix it for all of us.

We have to take ownership. Littering isn’t a sexy offense for the courts, and there are issues about being able to prosecute someone for it. If that happens, great, but never mind the litigation. That’s not our plea today.

We need to clean the county.

We need to be mindful to report littering. If lawmen don’t know who it is, we need to say something if we see something. That’s no different than any other offense, large or small.

Step up and grab some ground along the highway, pledging to keep it clean. Formally or informally, it doesn’t matter, just stop the littering.

We can do better than this.