After School Let Out
- Before School let out
These are After and Before pictures of the gathering place around the tree at the edge of the library parking lot. Yesterday it looked a lot worse (than the AFTER) with an actual WHOLE PIZZA BOX in the mix. I brought out a trash bag and cleaned it up, so it looked like the BEFORE photo. Not 24 hours later, (right after classes got out at the nearby high school) it was back to this. I just don’t understand the lack of care and concern for the property of others displayed by people who litter. I know it’s easier to add to the mix when there is already something there, (thus my attempt to make it pristine again…) but this group of about 15 young men who hang out here between classes and after school, had no qualms about dropping their waste, only yards from a nearby trash can.
Ok, now for what I can learn from them…
…. (thinking….thinking….thinking….)
Well, when confronted with the mess yesterday, they had no qualms also about speaking up and saying, “It wasn’t me…” “I’m actually a hippie-tree-hugger, myself…” They stood up for themselves. They weren’t about to be falsely accused. They were assertive. So, I guess “back when I was a kid” I would have been too intimidated by an adult to stand up for myself if I was falsely accused of something. I probably would have just burst into tears. (Well, maybe not as a teenager…). So maybe it wasn’t those particular gentlemen who littered that time, but SOMEONE did. And those are the ones I just can’t understand.
Making Life an Art 
It is so easy to put litter in a bin or take it home with you. I don’t understand it either.
I know! The guilt I would feel if I just dropped trash on the ground would haunt me!
Pingback: Ethical Professor Boynton (Part 1) | The Jittery Goat
Pingback: Daily Prompt: Generation XYZ | The Wandering Poet
That’s so nice of you to try and lead by example. My experience with the students who hang out in the park is that their not the best decision makers. Try not to take it to heart.
Pardon, I meant “they’re,” not “their.”
I think that is my trouble: too nice! I don’t want to be the “tough cop” so I’m not very direct with them. I just nod when they tell me it was “the other guy” and not them. 🙂
You’re not the one in need of an attitude adjustment so don’t go changing. We need more people like you who care!! I think you’re doing the best thing by demonstrating what’s important to you. Hopefully that will influence those kids.
thanks! 🙂
Pingback: Daily Prompt: Generation XYZ | Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss
Pingback: Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation | Edward Hotspur
Pingback: Learning from my 4 year old | A mom's blog
I put a comment in the poll but it didn’t show-up.
Here’s what I said: Get the Band of Hope to daily sing the Gospel there and I guarantee the end of the littering problems. LOL 🙂
haha! Great suggestion! When I checked, I didn’t see the poll at all! Thought I didn’t do it right, but couldn’t see what to do different.
I date a guy who always picks up several items of garbage wherever we go. He says he’s sure that occasionally something probably flies out of the back of his truck so he should in turn pick up something else. I think it’s a wonderful quality in him, though I do sometimes find strange items in my own vehicle. He’ll pick up garbage, stash it in the back of my car, and then forget about it!
Charming! What a great philosophy.
I wrote about this myself, quite a while ago. We used to just pick up other peoples trash in a few campgrounds and picnic areas. Finding diapers and broken glass was disturbing. We cannot relate..
I just don’t understand it…lack of education? ignorance? Apathy?
I don’t think people care and these people that don’t care instill the same attitude in their children. ):