"Ask not what your country can do for you." Also, don't ask what you can do for your country.

An Ohio man has been arrested for mowing the overgrown grass at a local park in Sandusky.

Here's my favorite part:

"Police said they arrested 48-year-old Hamilton after he refused to stop mowing and charged him with obstructing official business and disorderly conduct.

City Manager Matt Kline called the arrest unfortunate and said he understands Hamilton's frustration. Kline said budget cuts have left Sandusky understaffed for seasonal maintenance work."

[Emphasis mine.]

The very brief AP article makes sure to say that he was blowing the grass out onto the sidewalk and that his mower chewed up trash that hadn't been picked up, as though this justifies the arrest somehow. As though it wasn't the town's responsibility to pick up that trash -- the town's, or the individuals' who threw it there in the first place.

Short of court-mashalling those litterers, the town should be taking care of this property. If they're even slightly worried that John Hamilton's actions will lead to other mowers coming forward and contributing to the town by taking care of public land in similar ways, they should applaud it and give him some kind of award, like some free bowling shoe rentals. Or, hey, a tax cut.

If they're worried about lawsuits should anyone not officially employed by the city get hurt while taking care of public land, all the more reason to officially find a way to accept them as volunteers. And coming from a resident of the state that invented Lyme disease (though we don't have a monopoly on "rusty metal hiding in tall grass"), I can tell you that unkempt public fields are just as likely to get you in legal trouble as somebody mowing them.