You know it's such a loverly day today I thought we'd just take a walk in the sun. OUCH! Oh my, I just stubbed my toe on something. What's this? A soapbox? Well, gee willikers who am I to waste a perfectly good soapbox? Let me just climb up here a second. Goodness so many topics from which to chose.
Let's just start with environmental snobs. Let me preface by saying that I used to work for a grassroots environmental lobbyist organization. I worked long hours on things like bringing curbside recycling to Oklahoma, requiring better ground water protection from garbage dumps and battling corporate hog farms (who btw are nasty nasty nasty polluters of both our environment and our bodies). I've lived totally off the grid, complete with bicycle powered generator, and was a vegetarian for years. In my heart, I will always be a hairy legged, tree hugging, bandanna wearing hippie. That being said, I'm sick of these, "I'm better than you" trendy greenies who treat people like poo just because they don't have their own compost pile. Poo, compost pile, that's kinda funny. Anyhoo, if you really believe in a cause, you'll take any help you can get, be it big or small. Even Ed Begley, Jr. had to start somewhere.
I was at the store a while back and this woman in line behind me made quite a stink about the sign the store had hanging about switching to green bulbs.
Freak woman, "I can't believe you have that sign hanging when you use plastic grocery bags".
Me, "Well, at least they're doing something."
Freak woman,"But they're made of petroleum for God's sake!".
This is coming from a woman purchasing a plastic single serve 20 oz bottle of Coke who just moments before, I watched smearing on her Maybelline makeup. Really?? Maybe you ought to rethink your accessories before you make an environmental assault.
I've seen this kind of attitude so many times it's makes me steam. For goodness sake, let people do what they can. Think about the grand scheme of things, if everyone who never recycled would recycle just one can a year it would make a huge difference in our landfills. It's SOMETHING.
Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. Now go hug a tree (and a hippie)!
4 comments:
You said it, sister! So true!
I'm tired of all these damned stores pushing their "green" bags on me and making me feel like an a-hole b/c I have them bag my stuff up in those handy plastic bags. Those things come in super handy for me - from disposing of diapers (Hell NO I'm not using cloth ones!...then again, for those that use cloth...it's not all too enviro friendly either when you have to do bookoos of laundry to clean them things) cat litter, etc. AND, if I have excess, I always return them to be recycled again.
My grand daughter Shelby will be 4 next week. A week before Christmas as we were coming home from the store, from the back seat comes the statement, "kids can recycle too!" Wow, I said "that's right they sure can" so I say, 'well, do you recycle?" "No!, mommie and daddy don't either!" (she's a good tattler)"do you recycle, Gigi?" (they call me by my first name, I could kick my son for that) "yes, I recycle a lot of different things but I could do better." Then she tells me, "yes you can. I can help you okay".....So my point is get the little ones involved and make it a fun family affair. We can all do something. Great reminder. Yeah, I don't care to much for green snobs either.
I think the only time I get really frustrated (being a bit of a hippy myself) is when people say they can't be bothered. We have three bins here, one for landfill, one for recyling and one for composting. How hard can it be to separate stuff!
That said, you know sometimes, you find that something in the back of the fridge that you neither remember buying, opening or eating but has clearly been there since the beginning of time, that goes straight in the bin, plastic container or not. I just can't wash out something that's obscenely stinky ;)
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