Highway Trash

No matter where you live, there is trash along the highways, streets, roads, and avenues you travel every day. I hope you aren't a part of the population that put it there. If you are, I have a question. Does it concern you that the public at large views you as the lowest possible life form? Even animals in the wild would never eliminate their own waste where they eat and sleep. I know, you don't either, right? Wrong. You throw your trash out in someone else's yard, roadside, curb, etc. Out of your sight, out of your mind. There are others just like you, though. They throw their trash out and it lands in your front yard. You don't really care, after all, you are a trashy person. The sad fact is this; you are not the type of person to stumble across this article and recognize yourself. There is a small hope that another group of trashers will see themselves here and make some lifestyle changes that would eliminate half of the trash we see---the drivers of pick-up trucks.

Whether you drive a truck for a living, recreation, or the sole means of transportation, you know that those empty soda cans, chip bags, take-out boxes, and napkins will find their final destination along the roads and in medians before you pull in to your own driveway. You think to yourself, "It isn't on purpose." Let us be honest. The first time it happened it may have been without intention. The second time and beyond, you had to know. A minus B equals One Who Litters. Let us see: 1. You tossed the trash into the back of your truck. 2. You drove home (wherever). 3. The trash has disappeared from the back of your truck. If you are telling us that you had no idea, you don't have sense enough to be driving. You know where the trash is going. You have just found an easy, guilt-free way to toss your trash. You hold more guilt than those who purposefully wind down a window and sling out an empty beer bottle. Those people are sub-human. Their brains are underdeveloped or chemically altered by Meth. You, however, have cunningly contrived a means of disposing your trash a little at a time without effort. I beg you to look left and right the next time you travel to and from. The trash is knee deep because it adds up. It adds up faster when there are legions of you.

What are we going to do with you? We are going to write down your tag number and call the highway patrol, local police, or local sheriff's office. We need the fine money to pay for clean-up along our highways and byways. We need to lobby for new laws that require you to spend a certain number of hours picking up your and the other fellow's trash. If we make you bend over and pick up a few thousand times, maybe you won't find it such a bother to find a proper trash can when you need one. Most people keep a trash receptacle inside their cars, trucks, and SUV. You can even use the bag that your lunch came in.

What would make a person indifferent to the ever growing mounds of trash that lines the ditches, accumulates at curbs, and piles up on the shoulders of highways and interstates? I feel such sadness that our nation breeds and attracts the type person who doesn't mind living in filth. I wonder if we don't need more cameras in more places to catch the trashy people in action. Would it bother you to see yourself on the news, tossing out the styrofoam box your lunch came in? Would you be embarrassed if you were filmed for fifteen minutes as we watched the empty soda bottle, napkins, packaging, and paint rags fly out of the back of your truck? Would it take jail time for you to care? We need to know. Time is running out. There are some short people out there who will soon be unable to see over the top of the trash. If you have any ideas, I would love to hear them.