A reader wrote to us via Facebook:
Another two benches have been stolen from the bicycle path in Kruszyna. Two are still left; the weak security measures continue to tempt thieves.
We remind you of the appeal by Jarosław Babiasz from the Bolesławiec Commune Office, which we published in our pages in mid-January:
Signs marking the new “Łużyce-Bory” route regularly disappear, bicycle shelters are used by “connoisseurs of spirits” as informal drinking spots, and empty bottles—though not necessarily from isotonic drinks—are left along the roadsides. Even throwing those onto the edge of the road is nothing to be proud of.
This picture does not reflect well on us—users, residents and investors. I deliberately write about all of us, because although this investment was carried out by the Commune and co-financed by the European Union, it was created with our money—the residents’ money, from our taxes (and it was not a small amount: more than PLN 3 million in our Commune alone)—and is used largely by us, the residents.
And he adds:
Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said: “There is no such thing as public money. If the government says it is giving something to someone, it means it will take it from you, because the government has no money of its own.” In our local circumstances, this bitter truth means only—or at least—that we will all pay for every act of vandalism through our taxes, because repairs will have to be made, even though something new could have been created instead. And there is no funding available for investments such as repairs.
On another occasion, Mrs Thatcher said: “We do not want a society where the state is responsible for everything and nobody is responsible for the state.” Let us replace the word state with the word commune. The Commune is us, the residents—not only the authorities, councillors or officials. Simply us. If we ignore acts of vandalism, wait for someone to do something on our behalf, report something to someone, draw someone’s attention to it or notice something, while we indifferently turn our heads and walk on, it may turn out that both we and the harm done to us will be overlooked. So let us not be afraid to respond to and condemn such behaviour as vandalism or littering. This will in no way be doing anyone else’s job, because caring for the common good is in everyone’s interest.
The official appeals:
If you know or have information about who is destroying our shared, though public, property, notify the public-order services—the police. This will in no way be informing on someone, but simply taking care of our own surroundings and, above all, our own money.
For our part, we would add that acts of vandalism are punishable by between three months and as much as five years’ imprisonment.