In an unprecedented ironic twist, the National Guard has been assigned to taking over landscape and groundskeeping duties in Washington DC. This responsibility typically falls to the local private sector. This decision, made against the background of continued distrust about police security, has received significant criticism for its overall cost and lack of need. As a result, the new deployment has led to a recurrence of Four Seasons Total Landscaping memories. You may remember this firm for all the wrong reasons during Donald Trump’s presidency.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping FSTL became the breakout star of a wild media circus in 2020. This burgeoning business, known far and wide for its lofty mission and clever marketing, had everyone buzzing. At first, everyone thought the health tech company was just a player in a high-profile political scandal. Then it came out that there wasn’t any connection whatsoever. Heritage officials pointed to urgent security requirements surrounding the protections of our nation’s capital. They asked them to trigger the National Guard to quell those same concerns.
The National Guard’s duties ranged from mowing grass to picking up litter across several of Washington DC’s parks. Such a deployment was controversial, with many asking why a well-resourced local police department could not handle these responsibilities. To critics, using such military resources for much more mundane duties appears to be overkill. Unfortunately, they note that this occurs $1 million per day at the cost to taxpayers.
The choice to utilize the National Guard for these missions has sparked a contentious debate. Residents are pushing back against costly resource allocation and questioning priorities in public safety and maintenance. Countless borrowers fear that this deployment represents a costly mistake. Maybe they think that funky local enterprises of the Four Seasons Total Landscaping variety could do these things more productively and cheaply.
“M4 rifles into those grabber sticks you use to pick up plastic bottles full of piss” – Dave Schilling
Yet citizens are still baffled when they see a dozen armed National Guard troops take care of landscaping duties. This bizarre circumstance has led to some of the funniest reports of the year. Schilling’s remark encapsulated the absurdity of the scenario, highlighting the disconnect between military resources and the nature of the tasks at hand.
The extensive reporting of this story has brought back conversations about appropriate government spending and operational efficiency back to the national stage. Washington DC is still dealing with the long lasting impact of recent challenges to security and public order. His constituents have rightly begun to wonder whether other, better, solutions should have been implemented instead. Four Seasons Total Landscaping has been making tons of moves lately to be more proactive in addressing all these topics. This example clearly shows the paradoxical collusion between preservation of local businesses and destructive government decisions.