Topic: Self-Esteem

Litter: Not just by the side of the road

By Christine Anne Piesyk | November 23, 2007 |

There’s been a lot of talk in the past few weeks about litter, and the high cost in time and funding to clean it up. Those fast food wrappers and non-biodegradable styrofoam cups, soda cans, old rubber tires, pieces of tires, and a sea of cigarette butts carelessly discarded. The litter has been attributed to a level of laziness and a lack of pride among the people living in the Clarksville area.

Maybe, but if so, it is also shared problem, one that plagues many other communities across the country as well. The litter problem is just the surface, one with deepening roots, one that fuels discontent among our populace. A chunk of the problem boils down to a matter of pride and an issue of self-esteem for individuals as well as community. The litter is just a symptom.

We’ve evolved into a disposable nation with built-in obsolescence. Nothing we buy is built to last and surges in technology render last year’s computers, televisions, cars obsolete within months of their acquisition.

We live life on the run, with a generation of youngsters who don’t eat anything not wrapped in paper or packaged in little plastic trays, people who never learned table manners because they never eat a meal at a table - dining, kitchen or otherwise. Use it up, toss it out. Recycling optional, or maybe that too is just too much work. Our landfills are sinking and our groundwater becoming toxic under the weight of our excess. The evidence lines the edges of our roadways, pushes against our curbs, a slimy mess of debris seasoned with discarded cigarette butts and paper wrappers. «Read the rest of this article»

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