Moms throughout Loudoun County are collectively growling at Hamilton’s decision to close Hamilton Community Park to drive in traffic. Local politicians will likely arrive at the office Monday morning to a heavy volume of calls and emails asking the town to reconsider their decision. Everything I know about it I read in Friday’s Leesburg Today and on local message boards and email groups where the venting has begun.
I am saddened by the thought of reduced access to one of the nicest parks I have been to in Loudoun County. We have been a few times and really enjoyed it. I always meant to take the kids there more often, but the reality is that the park is out of our usual circuit and we have not been back in over a year. Despite my disappointment I completely understand how the town might feel frustrated by folks coming from elsewhere and then not picking up their trash. It happens all the time on my own front lawn. I don’t smoke, but I stoop to pick up cigarettes daily and there are always more. It makes me feel as mad as Goldie in Margie Palatini’s board book “Goldie is Mad” but there’s nothing I can do but accept the litter, pick it up, or throw a raging tantrum like Goldie. The town of Hamilton searched for an alternate solution. I hope it works for them, and that it is worth alienating all those angry moms.
The lesson here is pick up after yourselves, pick up after your kids, pick up after your dogs and pick up after the other fools who have not figured it out yet. I’d suggest to anyone who upset about Hamilton’s decision that the most powerful response out there is to teach our children to be more respectful of our shared spaces than whoever has been disrespecting them so much that a park is closing its doors to neighbors from the next town over.
