Just look out the window of your car as you drive around town today. It could be any town really.  Do you see it?  There’s garbage everywhere. Sure, it’s nothing new and it’s so easy to miss at the speed of life, but wait a moment, have you really taken a bit of time to consider all this trash. What does it say about us, or town, our state, or country, our earth?  Is it just a tempest in a paper cup, or a message about our society that’s well, down right scary?  

There’s garbage everywhere around our community here in Baraboo.  There’s trash leading the eye up to our city line signs, and trash by the signs welcoming visitors to our valley.  There’s soda cans, cigarette packs & butts, milk cartons and pencils. There’s faux leather, cell phone cover packaging, fast food bags, straws, and cups.  There are beer cans and bottles, and those fancy latte cups with that extra little cardboard ring that keeps you from burning your fingers. There are spray cans, shopper stoppers and every form of ripped and torn plastic and bags. There’s even a faded card that says “Proud Sponsor of the National Breast Cancer Foundation” curled up in the ditch across from the local Farm and Fleet Store.  It’s a mess. Of course, it’s not fair or really meant to single out our hometown, as I said it could be anywhere,  Madison, Mauston, Fort Worth Texas.. You pick.

Here’s one mistake I think we’re making, we’re laying too much blame on too few feet. We’d like to lay the blame on just a few errant slobs out there, a small number of mindless imbibes. But really, we know deep down that’s not the case. There is A LOT of trash. Too much trash. In fact, you can’t even blame the tourists or people on their way through to somewhere else, those who many not respect “our community”.  No, there are wrappers, cans and butts littering the lawns, gutters and sidewalks of our side streets as well. We have to accept it,  much of this trash comes from us.  It comes from the guy who fixed your tire this morning and the woman walking her kids to school. It comes from the clerk at big box store, and the salesman in the quaint little shop. It’s the factory worker, the Docker wearing professional, the fisherman you chat with every Sunday afternoon, the waitress who brought you your “Omelet fit for a king”, and the guy who drained your septic tank. Everyone. Your friends and your neighbors, your school board members, your local county representatives… Now I know how you’re feeling. You want want to jump up and say “NO!” don’t you!? “It just can’t be!!!”  Well, it’s not “EVERYONE”  to be sure.  Not everyone tosses trash out their windows.  Some people of course are very conscientious. Some  people care, and some of us are quite appalled.  And yet, look at all that trash!! It’s not simply just a “few” degenerates either.

Now here’s the thing that has me wondering.  This trash is nothing new.  It’s been around since long before a Native American man wept during commercial breaks and long before Woodsy told us to “Give a Hoot“. But really how much has changed? The trash is still blowing around isn’t it? You may have heard, the worlds beaches are trashed too. Even the pacific ocean has an island of trash the size of Texas just spinning around out there.  I read just recently that the Atlantic ocean because so jealous that it has a garbage patch of its own.   From the end of our driveway to the shores of Antarctica the world is filled with stuff we simply threw out a window or left in the woods.  If we can’t stop this.. what can we do?  Global warming? Death of the rain forests? Extinctions of species?  All these big scary issues that we shout about and wave signs about, even change our avatars about.. and we can’t manage to change our neighbors view on tossing a french fry box out the window of his Oldsmobile on his way to pick up his daughter from dance class.  If we can’t persuade people to keep their own hometown clean, the streets they drive through each day, how can we hope to get their support behind issues so big and so complex that very few really understand the coming impact?

Sure, we can run around behind people and clean up their messes. We can “Adopt-A-Highway” and take a garbage bag whenever we go for a walk.  We do.  In fact, it’s even rare that I can take my regular hikes at Devil’s Lake State park without picking up trash in some of the most surprisingly remote places.  Yeah, we can clean up after our friends and neighbors.. but I think we’re not only being overwhelmed but we also just masking the bigger issue.  What will it take for people to really care enough to stop?  Anything?

It seems to me that if we can’t beat the trash issue in our own communities, we’re not going to have much luck saving the world either.   What do you think?

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