Officials should stand firm on quality-of-life issues

CODY SOSSAMON PUBLISHER "Ugliness is so grim. A little beauty, something that is lovely, I think, can help create harmony which will lessen tensions." - Lady Bird Johnson

With that thought in mind the late First Lady of the United States sought to make the United States a more beautiful place.

Her effort began in Washington, D.C. and spread nationwide after she and her husband, President Lyndon Baines Johnson, became frustrated by the increasing number of billboards and junkyards they saw as they drove back and forth from Washington to their home in Texas.

She wanted the highways cleared of billboards and junkyards and lined with green landscaping and flowers. To accomplish this, the Highway Beautification Act of 1965 was introduced but the powerful billboard lobby fought it tooth and nail. Critics have said the bill was so watered down that by the time it passed it did more harm than good.

The next time you drive north or south on I-85 count the number of billboards and decide for yourself whether Lady Bird's efforts to beautify our highways worked.

On the other hand, drive down I-26 from south of Spartanburg to outside Columbia and you'll see very few billboards and lots of wildflowers - just the kind of highway Ladybird imagined.

Granted, that section of interstate is pretty much desolate and therefore does not command a very high demand for billboard space or a need for junkyards. When the wildflowers planted by the state are in bloom it is a beautiful sight!

"There is a part of America which was here long before we arrived and will be here, if we preserve it, long after we depart: the forests and the flowers, the open prairies and the slope of the hills, the tall mountains, the granite, the limestone, the caliche, the unmarked trails, the winding little streams - well, this is the America that no amount of science or skill can ever recreate or actually ever duplicate," President Johnson said in remarks made at the signing of the Highway Beautification Act. "This is the source of America's greatness. It is another part of America's soul as well."

Now, more than 40 years since the passage of that bill, Cherokee County Council finds itself immersed in situations involving both billboards and junkyards.

The issue on billboards concerns a regulation already passed by council and the junkyard controversy is over a proposed regulation.

A local businessman wants the county to revise the existing billboard ordinance so that he can purchase several very small tracts of land on which he wishes to maintain billboards already in place via a land lease.

In the junkyard issue, the county's proposed ordinance would require fencing around all businesses classified as junkyards to hide them from public view.

In the first matter, there is the possibility of lost revenue. In the second, there is the certainty of additional expense.

As a small business owner, I understand the feelings of those affected.

On the other hand, I applaud county council for finally coming to the realization that the natural beauty of this county is worth protecting. The emphasis being placed on recycling is another progressive step council is taking.

In all probability, the billboard owner will get his land and keep his signs. The junkyard owners will be appeased in some way so as not to put them in a financial bind.

Those on county council face difficult decisions, but then, that comes with the territory.

No matter what they decide, some will not be pleased.

If not now, the time is near for our elected officials to stand firm on these quality-of-life issues which preserve the natural beauty of our county, state and nation.

"In recent years I think America has sadly neglected this part of America's natural heritage. We have placed a wall of civilization between us and between the beauty of our land and of our countryside. " President Johnson said in 1965. "In our eagerness to expand and improve, we have relegated nature to a weekend role, and we have banished it from our daily lives. Well, I think that we are a poorer Nation because of it."

Even after 43 years of allowing conditions to worsen, Lady Bird's dream of beautiful highways and countrysides across this great country can still be realized.

We can do our part right here in Cherokee County.

Will we?

Cody Sossamon (cody@gaffneyledger.com)

is publisher of The Gaffney Ledger.