We live in a trash culture.
It was about 6:30 A.M. I was driving to work, taking streets because the freeways were slower. I turned a corner after waiting for a green arrow that was totally useless most of the day. As I turned I saw a young man casually throw a cup on the ground as he was walking. It looked like a coffee cup. He was obviously heading for work or school so we are not talking about a homeless person. To him the area around him was a trash can.
We live in a trash culture.
Have you ever driven through an underpass and seen old couches and appliances piled up? People got a new one and needed to get rid of the old one. All they have to do in the urban area I live is call the people who pick up trash and they will schedule a pick up. Instead they haul the lump to an area where no one will see them and dump it off. Sometimes they are so lazy that they just leave it in front of a neighbor.
We live in a culture of trash.
It starts in our schools. It isn’t universal but there are certain groups of children that are already trash dispensers. It is not accident or ignorance. I have had periods where I have policed the room, made sure things were tidy and lost my focus. Several students will take the paper they have torn up and stored in their books and dump it on the floor on their way out as another will distract me with a question.
If you go through the quad after lunch you will see trash spread out over the entire area. A large offering is spread within easy reach of a trash can. That can be picked up by their servants. What can’t be picked up is the gum they throw on the walkways. It stains and marks the concrete so it looks like a case of severe measles.
We live in a trash culture.
Some of the syndrome is individual. More is cultural. When I would drive across Los Angeles from my home to the hospital where my wife was having her surgery, you could tell when you went from one cultural area to another. One had trash everywhere, grass growing out of every crack and black spots on every section of concrete. A few blocks away everything was neat and clean.
All cultures are not the same. They are not equal. We need to decide what kind of culture we want to live in and begin exerting pressure to make it happen.
The trash stops in my cultural area.
homo unius libri
I've seen the same thing. Of course, I've also seen well-dressed folks in Cadillacs throw things in the mall parking lot.
ReplyDeleteI accuse the kids of lacking home training. Inferred in that is that they were trained to be trashy. I guess the attitude has no class lines.
DeleteGrace and peace.