Honolulu Lite Charles Memminger

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Forget yard signs, it’s time to ban the cans

If the Outdoor Circle really wanted to get rid of all those annoying election season yard signs, they should have mounted a huge grass-roots campaign that the state Legislature couldn't have ignored.

They should have made thousands of signs that said things like "Down With Signs!" and "No Political Eye Pollution!" and put those signs at every major street corner in Honolulu. And they should have hung huge banners on fences across the street from legislators' houses saying "Ban Bothersome Banners!" And they should have plastered their anti-sign messages on the sides of moving vans and other big trucks and driven around the island day and night, forcing people to read their protests.

The reason politicians have their supporters put campaign signs all over creation is because they work. And the Outdoor Circle folks aren't going to win a campaign against signs without getting in the sign game themselves.

Personally, I think the Outdoor Circle should concentrate on ridding the island of an even more offensive eyesore than political signs: rubbish cans. Our neighborhoods are literally being trashed by the ubiquitous presence of those huge, ugly, black, green and blue city-issued rubbish bins. It was bad enough when we only had to look at one black plastic can sitting in front of everyone's house, but, thanks to recycling, now hundreds of these offensive, colorful sentinels stand guard day and night along every roadway. Why do the trash cans even have wheels? Nobody ever moves them.

It's ironic that simply because of a new technology that allows the cans to be picked up mechanically by truck drivers, we are now subjected to having to look at ugly rubbish cans every day. I don't think that "going green" means keeping a green rubbish can the size of a small shed standing outside your house forever.

In the old days, people didn't leave their garbage cans out front, because the garbage can was theirs. They paid good money for it, and they didn't want it stolen. These official city refuse containers belong to the government, so people don't care if they're stolen. They'll just be issued another one. It's a good lesson of what happens when the government replaces something of value with something with no value. These rubbish containers have sadly become as much a permanent part of the island's scenery as Diamond Head and the Koolau Mountains.

Since the Outdoor Circle isn't able to get rid of yard signs, I doubt it will be able to force people to drag their garbage cans into their garages after the opala truck passes.

Politicians no doubt will recognize the advertising potential of these huge plastic containers during upcoming elections. The garbage cans are always sitting by the road for everyone to see. Why not decorate the ugly trash cans with equally ugly campaign posters? It will be the perfect harmonic convergence of visual pollution.