Problems in Butler and surrounding townships persist and worsen with every passing year.

The litter problem persists. We need to start a program to adopt a neighborhood litter control like the state Adopt a Highway.

The problem of skateboarders and bicyclists on pedestrian sidewalks persists, with no enforcement of the fines posted.

The city and townships need to realize that any burning of fires that are not used to grill food should be prohibited in neighborhoods where houses are too close to each other. Wood, paper and trash fires are toxic, pollute the air and cause breathing problems for people with COPD or other upper respiratory problems.

Butler must start and enforce a curfew for the nighttime. Unsupervised kids of all ages are out carrying on and disturbing the peace past midnight. Round up the kids, find their negligent parents and fine those parents $100 a night for curfew violations.

Revitalization will never succeed in any city or township if these problems persist uncorrected. Our crime problem will worsen too, as more drug users and pushers continue to live and operate here. Butler is not safe anymore, day or night.

If people would just live by the rule of doing to others as you would want others to do to you, maybe things would be better and Butler County would be like it was When my parents and grandparents lived and grew up here in the 1940s, ’50s and early ’60s. Those decades were a lot more civilized than the 2000s. We can turn things around and have a great society if we work at limiting the kinds of problems I’ve consistently written about in the past few years. If not, then we have only ourselves to blame for the problems that make life miserable and places unlivable.