Have you ever noticed that some people throw garbage out their window as they are driving around town? A small candy wrapper or a used drink container may not seem like a big deal, but it reeks of an “I don’t care” attitude. We are so lucky to live in a beautiful city, and we certainly do not need these disgusting habits destroying it.
The other day as I was approaching my car in a shopping center parking lot, I almost tripped on a dirty diaper. This is not the first time I’ve seen used diapers left by inconsiderate slobs. It seems that they plant these used disposables in department store dressing rooms, shopping carts, by street curbs and any place where they change their baby. I guess we can be grateful that they at least change the kid.
Are these people lazy or just plain pigs? I hate to think what their homes look like although I can imagine. Matter of fact, I think I’ve been in some of those homes throughout my design career. I have had to step over clothes and garbage to reach the kitchen to measure for new cabinets back in the day. Some of the kitchens were so full of clutter and grease that my tape measure had to be sterilized after I used it. Yuck!
There seems to be a troubling growth in recent years in the number of people lacking consideration for others. It starts at a very young age when the children learn bad habits from their parents who, in turn, learned bad habits from their parents, and so on and so forth.
Adult bullies have little bullies, adult loud mouths have little loud mouths and adult slobs have little slobs. This seems like a vicious cycle. God help us . . . we need to put a stop to it now!
Good morning:
I completely agree (interesting how frequently that happens – kind of interesting with our differing political views).
I am constantly infuriated by the way people use our public (and private) spaces as their own trash disposal or ashtray.
We must begin to impose serious fines for this type of crap (literally and figuratively) – and then enforce them. Let’s begin at $1,000 and go up from there. I know an argument against this would be that “…the only folks who would get fined would be those who wouldn’t pay the fine…” and, to a degree, that may be true. But I don’t believe that this kind of behavior is restricted to any particular group or class of individual. It, very unfortunately, crosses all spectrum’s of society.
To my horror, I have actually seen fast food debris dumped from a law enforcement vehicle. That really made me angry but the cop was speeding away so quickly I could not call him on it.
To determine where this all stems from, you only need to look at how people dress to travel on airplanes, shop at malls, eat in restaurants (of both the fast food and conventional variety) and do just about everything else.
That these folks don’t care about themselves is really their own problem. But they have no right to inflict this kind of horror on the rest of us.
Keep up the great comments.
Kirk
Kirk, Thank you for all your comments throughout the year. It makes this column worth writing and sharing my views.
Coming from NY, littered sidewalks and streets were just the norm. I always took such pride in the fact that the streets in Arizona were so clean and still are compared to NY. What I think has happened is that parents today are not teaching their spoiled children respect for others or their environment.
Of course there are people who are just “pigs” and you can’t expect a “pig” to teach their little piglets manners, cleanliness or the proper way to behave.