Gotta love this Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett has had enough. 

No, not that Tony Bennett. Not the smooth tuxedoed crooner. 

We're talking Tony Bennett of Bethel, Maine. This Tony Bennett may well have a crooner-ific voice, but he's all scraggly hair and beard and, in the pictures I've seen of him, he's shirtless. I'm guessing he may never had donned a tuxedo at any point in his life, but you really don't need to wear a tux - or a shirt, for that matter - if the task you've set for yourself is cleaning up the trash behind a couple of Walmarts in Western Maine. This Tony Bennett has gone DIY on trash pickup because Walmart ain't doing it, and he really wants to keep the Androscoggin River - and the Atlantic Ocean it flows into - clean.

Tony Bennett said he’s advised managers at both stores for the past three years that he’s had enough of the trash building up outside their stores. He said when he saw hundreds of face masks, empty Walmart bags, Dunkin’ containers and used diapers spread out and obviously raked down the riverbank Wednesday morning, he couldn’t stand it.

“They literally just raked (the trash down the banking),” he said. “They raked from 20 feet to the pavement all the way to bank and they dumped it over the bank right with all of the leaves and debris and garbage for 100 feet long, 20 feet wide and put it right over the bank, with all the other trash.”

He said he told the manager Wednesday morning, “You’re the manager and you’re allowing this to happen in the River Valley? I said, ‘164 miles of the Androscoggin River, 3,530 miles of watershed and you’re allowing your store to disrespect us like this? And you’re not doing nothing about it?’” (Source: Sun Journal)

Anyway, this Tony Bennett decided to haul the trash away himself. 

Alas, some employees of the store in Mexico - lots of towns in rural Maine are named for places people would rather be - reported him to management. Management asked him to get off Walmart property. When this Tony Bennett wouldn't cease and desist with his cleanup, the Mexico PD was called in. So rather than get arrested in some sort of variation on an Alice's Restaurant theme, this Tony Bennett left quietly, the bed of his van loaded with trash. 

Walmart (corporate HQ in Arkansas) has supposedly contracted with someone to do the cleanup, but they haven't shown up yet. Given Walmart's reputation as the sort of good corporate citizen that gives advice to employees on how to apply for food stamps rather than just pay them a living wage, I'm not surprised. Especially given my fear and loathing of this company.

I realize that Walmart offers low prices on a wide range of products. And for people in some areas, it's the only game in town if you want clothing, home goods, appliances, furniture, toys, guns and ammo, caskets, sporting goods, electronics, bedding, decorations, and food and drugs. Remember those general stores from old Westerns? Walmart is GENERAL STORE writ large. 

Despite this - and I do have sympathy for folks who live in places where they really do need to shop at Walmart - my personal jury's still out on whether this behemoth provides a net benefit or not. (Easy for me to feel this way, of course. I don't have to shop there. Plus I'm a total snob, so there's that.)

“I can’t walk away from it anymore,” he said. “I love Maine and I love the rivers, I love the ponds, the lakes and the wildlife and I’m not gonna let corporate Walmart s**t all over Oxford County, Maine. They can do it to the rest of the country and the rest of the world but they’re not doing it here on my watch.”

Good for this Tony Bennett.  He's not just bitching, he's doing. 

And he's making an impact. The other day, he spotted employees at the Oxford Walmart cleaning.

Still, this Tony Bennett remains skeptical. 

“I’ve heard it from the district manager, and I’ve heard it from corporate. Stop blowing smoke up my a— and do something about it,” Bennett said. “The basic, bottom line is we just want this trash cleaned up. That’s what this is all about.” (Source: Bangor Daily News)

Yeah, Walmart! Stop blowing smoke up this Tony Bennett's ass and do something about the trash. It may not be your trash. And all of it - Dunkin cups, dirty diapers and all - may not have been left by your shoppers. But it's on your property, and if you've got the energy to shove it into the river, you've got the energy to clean it up.

So start listening to this Tony Bennett. His is a voice that needs to be heard.