The Pit is the one forum where name-calling and personal attacks are permitted.
No, you are NOT trying to “figure out why.” I’ve explained myself over and over. Just because some of you don’t want this to be illegal doesn’t mean it isn’t. It’s illegal for a reason, and I didn’t decide that. If I see someone doing something that’s illegal and I turn them in for it, how does it become somehow my fault? How does that make me a bad person?
I live with the occasional sound of gunshot - some of it my own - and varmints and other realities of rural life. I chose this. I love living where I live. And if anyone comes to me and says they need help - even the people I’ve reported for burning - I’m there in a heartbeat.
What irks me the most is that some of you apparently feel you know me and that I’m some kind of horrible person. Since you obviously don’t know me, that means the persona you’ve created for me comes from your own hearts and minds.
And now I’m really and truly done. A lot of you are on my ignore list, so don’t bother.
Well I didn’t realize that. I’m kind of new here, and it could be that I should have posted this in IMHO, or maybe someone might have pointed that out. But whether you permit name calling and attacks or not, I don’t. Which is why I’m outta this thread. Nasty, nasty people.
Sprockets, it appears to me that you are ignorant of two cultures in which you are interacting: the SDMB Pit and rural America. You came to the Pit with a complaint about something that bothers you. It hasn’t turned out as you had hoped, whatever it may have been that you were hoping. What has happened here is common in the Pit. Pittings often turn on the pitter. This is no surprise to anyone who has spent any time reading threads in this forum.
You are also guilty of one of the great sins in rural America. You have moved into an environment where you have no inkling of the customs and attitudes, and tried to impose your views on those who were already there. People who own land in rural areas firmly believe that they own their land, and that they are the best judges of what ought to happen on it. You may have the law on your side, at least nominally, but you are making enemies of your neighbors in a place where neighbors matter, as pointed out by CannyDan.
Here are a couple of things in your OP that revealed much more about you than about your complaint, things that have brought on some of the negative responses you’ve seen.
So anyone who burns rubbish is insane. Nice.
Nothing pisses country folk off more than having some tree-hugging newbie move in and starting a crusade to impose their will. This may shock you, but farms and other rural dwellings are often not the “greenest” places in the world.
I think people just want to know why it bothers you so much. Speeding is illegal, but it doesn’t usually bother me, and I don’t usually call & turn people in for it. It seems as though there is a reason that goes above and beyond the legality of the matter for you. You don’t like the smell, etc. I think that is what some people wanted to know. Maybe it wasn’t asked particularly tactfully, but I imagine this post hit pretty close to home for some people here.
Yes it’s illegal for a reason. But you need to get used to the idea that certain illegal things may be culturally acceptable, such as backyard burning and stealing American satellite. Unless it’s actually affecting you, I think you’re gong to get a lot of MYOB responses. And in that case, you need to state why it’s bothering you, rather than just “It’s illegal, stop that.”
If it’s brush being burned, I can’t imagine getting too upset. Lots of folks understandably wouldn’t want that collecting on their place as it potentially creates a refuge for critters, snakes, etc. Plus it’s rather unsightly.
If it’s styrofoams, plastics, tires or some foul and possibly carcinogenic items then maybe you could have a polite conversation with your neighbors and ask if they could wait until the wind is still so you’d not be impacted. I think that’s a reasonable request and most rural dwellers are eminently reasonable people. What they’re not, as mentioned, is tolerant of being dictated to.
Sprockets, do you think being an ex-smoker might have left you less amenable to being around the presence of any smoke at all? It sure did me. For awhile after quitting, years actually, I avoided second hand smoke of any kind like the plague, was over sensitive to its presence almost to a fault.
Sorry about your situation and hope you and the neighbors can arrive at a solution that works for everyone.
Here is an example of the way you have treated an OP in a IMHO thread. An OP, I might add, that never took a “nasty” tone toward you or anyone else in that thread.
I would say you need to take a nice long look in the mirror before you develop such a self-righteous attitude.
I just assume the OP isn’t a smoker. Cause if she were, I don’t think I could stand the irony.
FYI Sprockets, and I’m not being a smartass, you are skating close to a nono. Rule on Iggy List
No, she quit 4 years ago.
I know you’re not going to believe this, but you’ve been treated with kid gloves compared to what normally goes on in the Pit. People have been generally polite and have offered helpful suggestions.
:smack: I guess I missed that.
Well, Sprockets, would it help if you considered this payback for all the times you burned something and released pollutants into the atmosphere?
I’m with the OP on this one.
Obviously, what they’re doing IS illegal and goes beyond burning brush, stumps, etc. They were cited and fined by the EPA. And it’s illegal for a reason. Sure, the OP could have turned their back on the burner. Just like you could turn your back if you saw someone dumping oil into a creek or a company hauling barrels of waste out to a pond and dumping them. The argument, “That’s just country livin’!” is bullshit. This isn’t burning old wood or the EPA wouldn’t have fined them.
No one has been vicious in this thread, especially for the Pit. Most posters are truly trying to give good advice to help. You are so convinced of your infallibility, of your campaign, you are unwilling to listen to any other opinions.
I’ve always thought ignore lists were a sign of mental weakness. Trumpeting your use of them only makes you seem childish.
LaLaLaLa, I can’t hear you…
Based on Sprockets comments in the “Should I Move to South Carolina” thread (I apologize that I haven’t learned how to link to other threads or I’d post the link here), she’d better not move back to the south. :rolleyes:
We live in a rural area of a good-sized city. For the most part, I prefer the rednecks whose families have lived here for 30+ years (long before there were paved roads), regardless of the trailers, junk cars, and, yes, outdoor burning.
I get very annoyed at the yuppies who buy a lot, clear it, and then call code enforcement because their neighbor has some junk cars laying around that mess up the yuppies’ view.
My neighbor is a contractor and his place is beginning to resemble Sanford & Son. He burns all sorts of stuff (probably tires, too) but he also has *construction equipment * that he is more than happy to loan to us or, more likely, come over and do the work himself. Kind of makes up for the other stuff.
Sorry but nothing in the OP or the follow-ups make this a necessary conclusion. The only specific mention of materials being burned is “wood”. I asked already if there was more to the story, but the OP failed to answer.
The illegality too seems (at least by direct citation in this thread) to be limited to that “1000 foot” issue. The OP clearly reports not knowing any other specific basis for the EPA representative’s citations.
EPA regs are supposed to protect us from human health risks, and risks to our natural environment. A burning wood pile 500 feet from one’s door (half the “legal distance”) poses virtually zero health risk to anyone not already suffering from some sort of pulmonary issue. And that same wood smoke poses zero risk to the natural environment. (Aside from possible global warming impacts, which I don’t think that 1000 foot buffer would alleviate.)
Again, if truly noxious materials are involved, I think there would be more sympathy for the OP. But we have no reason to believe this to be the case.
Instead we have a classic self described busy body neighbor who has found a single sympathetic ear, that being a townie EPA functionary who apparently shares her desire to reform the entire neighborhood through “letter of the law” exercises. Meanwhile the entirety of officialdom (except for EPA-boy) and the affected neighbors themselves take a, shall we say, more nuanced view of the situation. And conclude that, despite the letter of the law, there is neither harm nor foul occuring.
Pointing this out serves merely to outrage the OP. I think we all can see into the crystal ball on this one.
meh…
I don’t know. The fire chief seems cool.
Here’s that thread. I just copied the URL from the address bar while I was in the thread, and then used the link function in the reply window to paste it into this reply. The link function is accessed by clicking on the little picture of a globe with a chain link.
Our dear sprockets certainly showed herself to be a paragon of cultural tolerance in that one.
You seem to be having trouble calculating your odds. The fact that some of them have already been cited and fined is a clue which you may find helpful.
Many people have found the modern wonder known as the automobile (perhaps you’ve heard of it, or even seen one) to be useful in moving trash to an acceptable area like, say, a dump.
No, you’re right, though; personal convenience is way more important than safeguarding the planet we live on. After all, it’s not your parents’ fault that they decided to move to an area where it wasn’t convenient to dispose of their trash; they were probably forced to do it at gunpoint by Barack Obama.
What, she’s supposed to confront her neighbors about it? According to some posters in this thread, she would get her house burned down that way. (That said, she was a major bitch in that IMHO thread.)
I doubt it. The “pollutants” she burned were (a) plants, (b) legal, and (c) not actually polluting to anything except lungs.