Although 9,000 pounds of trash might sound like the equivalent of the Senate impeachment trial’s subject, removing one is easier than convicting the other. I don’t want to give river trash a bad name, and the analogy ends where it begins: Yesterday’s garbage is today’s challenge, environmentally and politically. And like the kind evicted by voters, 9,000 pounds was also removed from the Tennessee River by volunteers over three days last month.
A team of volunteers from Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful joined state park workers to clean the river. The group’s goal is to remove 100,000 pounds by the end of the year. Progress is underway; the river floor is improving. Will the Senate floor? Or my kitchen floor, currently an abject nightmare? No and yes, respectively. The ocean floor gets 14 billion pounds of new trash every year. And any volunteers collaborating selflessly to clean rivers of environmental or political pollution deserve a full salute.
Is impeachment over yet? No, and neither am I; one more thing. Happy Valentine’s Day on Sunday (behold, third-century Saint Valentine of Rome, worshipped by sweethearts everywhere or nowhere) and Presidents Day on Monday (behold, the 1968 Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which ensured many holidays were Mondays providing three-day weekends). Your good news is welcome at recharge@motherjones.com.
