Letter to the Editor for 7-28-2016

Special to the PRESS

Dear Editor,

Do you mean to tell me that there is a sea turtle suffering somewhere in the world with a plastic straw in his nostril, and we haven’t banned plastic drinking straws yet? The horror! I am so glad that you all have brought this issue to my attention because I somehow missed the Politically-Incorrect-Item-Of-The-Week-Bulletin (P.I.I.O.T.W.B.) Darn email. Must have gone straight to my junk folder. Who knew the innocuous-looking drinking straw was the cause of such suffering and evil.

The most fascinating part of your “Ban the Straw” article was its complete lack of facts or information backing up the “dangers” of plastic drinking straws. There was a mention of a turtle video, and a mention of the irate ladies tired of picking up straws on the beach. But that’s it. No cold, hard facts of the hundreds or thousands or millions of sea creatures being injured by plastic drinking straws. No statistics on the pounds and pounds of plastic straws found on our beautiful SPI shores. None, whatsoever. Zero. Zip. I can’t believe that people have nothing better to do than to form committees to chat about banning little straws!

As the GLO Beach Cleanup coordinator for Friends of Isla Blanca Park for the past 10 years (and counting) I cannot recall seeing plastic drinking straws on the beach. I have seen plenty of plastic water bottles, bottle tops, and fishing line. But drinking straws? Seriously? And does this mean that we must begin banning everything that might create hazardous plastic litter?

I guess that means we must insist on people bringing water in reusable thermoses or metal water bottles only. And we will probably need to go ahead and ban fishing. We could ban all food on the beach too, just to make sure we don’t ever have to pick up a plastic wrapper. Hey, I’ve got it! Why don’t we just ban all humans from the beaches!

Sincerely,

Faith Ballesteros

South Padre Island

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2016/07/29/letter-to-the-editor-for-7-28-2016/

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