I walked by the lakes again today, this time armed with a trash bag and rubber gloves.  It amazes and saddens me that an enlightened population in the 21st century still does not know how to properly dispose of garbage and recyclables.  I remember the pollution crisis of the 1970's when garbage filled our ditches and roadways.  My mom was extremely enlightened for her time.  While others were tossing gum wrappers and cigarette packages out their car windows, Mom insisted we hand any wrappers or garbage up to her in the front seat where she would tuck it away in her purse until such time as she could throw it in a garbage can.  It was not surprising that when I began to embrace recylcing in the 1980's, Mom decided it was important too.  I still use many of the cloth shopping bags she made me.  Dad continues to recycle, but more because it was what Mom wanted and not some sense of obligation to our planet.  Maybe unconsciously I set off today to pick up garbage to honor the 11-year passing of her life.  

In just walking a mile, I filled an entire garbage bag and mostly with small bits of plastic and paper.  There was a beach towel that must have washed up on shore after my last walk and the top of a washing machine agitator that must have dislodged on the way to the landfill.....at least I hope that is where the machine ended up.  I picked up the most pieces of garbage outside bars, restaurants, and convenience stores.  The only way the paper top to a jug of milk finds its way onto the side of the road is by human hands.  If human hands could throw it on the ground, those same human hands could throw it into a garbage can.  If I were a business owner, I would pick up garbage outside my establishment on a daily basis.  I have no desire to patronize a business that cares so little for our environment.  That bar owner may say that his young patrons do not care about a little garbage around his parking lot, and I would tell him, "I have more money to spend than your young bar-hoppers, but I will not spend any of it in your place."

I found myself judging the people who have such blatant disregard for the health and beauty of our world.  I do not judge people for their religious or political beliefs nor for their race or country of origin.  But I judge people who litter.  I judge them to be selfish.  Frankly, I think a little judgment about people's poor behaviors and habits is necessary for a society to grow.  Having, as Freud called it, a super ego to keep people's negative behaviors in check is not a bad idea.  Respecting nature is bi-partisan.  Littering is disrespectful.  We desperately need an other-oriented world where everyone puts others before themselves.  I am not a proponent of the Golden Rule because it is rooted in selfishness.  If I treat others as I want to be treated then the focus is still on me.  If, however, I treat people the way they want to be treated then we become other-oriented and follow the Platinum Rule, a concept developed by communication researcher Milton Bennett.  

By reducing all types of pollution, we can add millenia to Earth as we know it.  If we do not reduce all types of pollution, the Earth will still exist but in a form uninhabitable for humans.  We will go the way of the dinosaurs when this planet was no longer hospitable to them.  For those who say, "This is why we need to travel to Mars and start a colony there," I say that in a thousand years Mars will be inhospitable to a people who never learned their lesson on Earth.