CLEAN STARTS AT HOME

So it just ticks me off to see garbage lying on the sidewalks

We don't have air conditioning so that we can avoid the possibility of Legionnaire's Disease - besides, walking to the Dairy Queen for a small turtle pecan cluster Blizzard saves money, provides exercise and, it could be argued, is part of my Olympic training regimen for the seniors power tanning team. I enjoyed my chosen protein supplement ( no banned substances, I presume) and disposed of the evidence into the garbage and headed back home. The route took me past a Seven Eleven where I noticed the usual crowd of cars and kids. As I walked down the hill towards home, I took notice of the assortment and quantity of items strewn about the boulevard, sidewalk, lawns and road. Slurpee cups, plastic utensils, lids, straws, cigarette butts and packages, pop cans and various other garbage. It started me thinking (or at least the brain freeze was slowly lifting), the current crop of high schoolers and college kids take great delight in blaming my generation for the condition in which we have left the planet. They have reason to be concerned but the evidence they leave in their own wake seems to point to a double standard. Like I said at some point in my book, The West Coast Trail: One Step at a Time, we are responsible for cleaning up after ourselves and it would seem to make sense that we take care of what is around us and what we personally control first, before worrying about others. Yep, I know that I am doing exactly what I am blaming others for (but I honestly try to take care of my own backyard) and the younger generations have cause to look at people of my age with disgust for some of the damage we have created. They need to keep us focused on the environment and pollution but just because we screwed up doesn't mean you should too. Pick up your garbage or better still refuse to buy all the packaging but at the very least, have enough respect to put it in a garbage container rather than on some one's lawn. Environment means more than some remote rain forest, it means the streets and neighbourhoods we live in too.