Garden pest.

It is just after dawn in Boston's Public Garden. The barely risen sun gives a golden glow to the dew-wet glass and makes the autumnal maples seem over more fiery. There are no clouds in the sky and though it is November the air is almost warm. This would be a rare moment of perfection except that something is wrong— the same thing that is wrong with almost every American city and town. Disturbing this idyllic moment of serenity is the loud monotonous droning of two leaf blowers, making a silent communication with Nature impossible. Not far away from me one joyless city worker is mindlessly stirring up clouds of golden maples leaves. To what purpose? None. Across the glass smooth pond another worker moves his even louder machine meaninglessly back and forth, scaring off any birds that might otherwise be singing and discouraging squirrels from scampering anywhere near this threatening sound. It is amazing to me that a device this foul and unpleasant is so ubiquitous and forgiven for it constant assaults on harmony. One would think that a city as civilized as Boston would have banned this monstrosity so that residents and visitors could enjoy the historic harmony of this city without the intrusion of this bullying monotoned polluter, which does nothing but foul the air, rearrange debris, assault the ears and depress the spirit. When I ask people if they are as bothered as I am, the invariable answer is “yes” followed by a shrug, which says they have no choice but to tolerate this tyrannical unpleasantness. And this is why nothing is being done to suppress one of the most annoying aspects of our society,