Benjamin Franklin said at the founding of the United States that we had a republic, if we could keep it. He meant that all citizens had a duty to protect and defend the fledgling nation's new system of government.

Well, Sandisfield, we have a new and cleaned up Swap Shop at the Transfer Station. That is, we have a cleaned up Swap Shop, if we can keep it.

Remember what happened to the former shop? People felt so tender about some of their stuff that rather than throw it out they stacked it in the shop where they hoped someone else would find it useful and take it home. That seldom happened. Instead, stuff piled up until it was hard to walk three feet into the shop.

Let's not let that happen again. If you have stuff that could be thrown out or might be useful to someone else, make the decision to throw it out. Don't clutter the Swap Shop with stuff that even you wouldn't want.

Since the Swap Shop was set up, rules have governed what should go into it, but we had forgotten about the list. A new monitor has posted a revised set of regulations. It is in all our best interests to follow them.

Four residents have volunteered to monitor the Shop, but so far only one has shown up. On a recent Saturday, with no monitor, stuff was being dropped off that a witness thought should have been thrown out. It's not the job of the attendant to monitor the Swap Shop. He does so when his real job - supervising the Transfer Station - allows him time to do so. But it's not his responsibility.

No, it's our responsibility. Take it seriously.

If there is no monitor on site, think three times before dropping anything off. If you don't carry it around the corner to the dump bin, somebody else will have to. Think of Ben Franklin, and work to protect our new system.