Hot Button: Litter

Trail in Maine--do you see any trash?

I know I haven't been posting much--most of my posts have been to the Facebook page because it is faster/easier when there is only something short. But I am on my soapbox today.

I just came back from a wonderful trip to Maine and Canada with my son and daughter-in-law. Other than the beautiful scenery and new birds, do you know what I noticed most? The lack of litter. The most litter was on the beaches where it washed up out of the ocean, but even there it looked like people either picked it up and took it home or piled the big stuff in one area for easy hauling.

One morning I was out walking with our hosts. We passed a beer can, and one of them picked it up. That was the only piece of trash I saw on that 4-mile walk. One of the other people walking is apparently part of a citizen's volunteer group that monitors the trails around the town and one of the things they do is pick up litter when they find it. Since there are a lot of tourists around, I am sure they have some. But people have pride in their community and pick up.

I am not saying there was no trash. I did see a little bit, but not near what I see in Wichita Falls daily. On the Rants and Raves Wichita Falls page on Facebook this morning a woman actually bragged about throwing trash on one of our streets because she was angry a restaurant got her order wrong. I went back to take a screenshot to make the woman famous on this blog, but she apparently pulled the post--someone did point out she broke the law, so I suppose she didn't want the bald admission there for the police to use as evidence.

I am not overly concerned with littering being against the law. It is disrepectful of our neighbors and makes our community look horrible. I have to do a litter pickup around my house at least once or twice a week--more often during high school football season. I am not picking up my trash--I am picking up after people with no consideration for others.

I often tell the story of when my son and I first arrived in Wichita Falls 20 years ago. We came in on Hwy 287. We no sooner got into the city limits when he said, "I don't think I'm going to like it here." That comment was based upon the trash all along the highway. It was a poor first impression.

We could do with a little respect and community pride.