Wednesday, May 7th 2008
Human nature is just about the only nature some people experience. [Abigail Charleson]
Welcome to Wednesday. If you tried earlier this morning to visit my website and weren’t successful, I apologize. My server was down overnight for maintenance.
One more day ’til our 12 hour radiothon, where Mike and I broadcast live from College Park raising money - and awareness - for Shelter from the Storm. More about it here tomorrow….
Hey - what on earth happened to our forecast of sunshine all day yesterday? Rain on my suede jacket was the least of my worries; Rob took his scooter out to be serviced and found himself riding in the rain. That’s something he tries very hard to avoid. Sometimes you wonder just how the forecasts can be so wrong. And I hate imparting information that is that inaccurate - so, I’m sorry.
We do the best we can with the weather forecasts that we’re given, but sometimes it’s not even a near-miss.
Yesterday during our News Cruise (a feature we air at 6:10 where we comb through the newspapers) Mike found and read a story about litter. The Ontario government has put an extra $3 million into its litter removal and grass-cutting budget for major highways this year, on top of a $1.3 million increase last year. The province will be fining those who litter, in an effort to keep Ontario’s roads clean; those caught littering can face fines between $60 and $500.
Mike and I agreed on how crazy the whole issue of littering makes us - and should make any sane person; we discussed this very thing during Earth Day a few weeks back. And I’d love to know if anyone anywhere is ever actually fined! Anyway, after our discussion yesterday I got an e-mail from listener Susan Best. And she had such good suggestions that I got permission to share
it with you here.
“I too have been appalled for years at the amount of litter on our roads and fields.
“As you know, every high school student needs 40 hours of volunteer work to graduate. I think that if we want to make an impact on the next generation, we should require that at least half of those hours be used to pick up litter. If the next generation is made to clean up the mess, perhaps they will think twice about creating it and will teach their children not to litter.
“Wait, wait…. I know it is NOT high schoolers creating the problem, but we have to stop the problem before we have another generation throwing stuff out the car window. My children went through Scouts and Guides and part of the program includes adopting local parks and public areas and doing at least one clean-up week-end per year. When I do their laundry, I find all sorts of wrappers in their pockets. They tell me it is not hard to find a garbage can at school or on the way back from the mall - or just put small things in their pocket (for Mom). Most kids do not go to these programs any more (there’s the subject of another e-mail… LOL). I know educators teach environmental issues, but not much time is spent on actually witnessing the magnitude of the problem of litter and the cost to society.
“Would adults throw stuff out the window if they knew their kids had to pick it up?”
Susan, those are excellent points and your e-mail ends with a very good question. While I would rather my daughter be singing on stage or playing
cello in orchestra (and she certainly would, too), I think it would not hurt her to don reflective colours, hard hat and gloves and use that healthy young back to
pick up trash. I’m only sorry that some of it has come from people in her parents’ and grandparents’ generations.
How anyone can have so little love and respect for their city, their country, their planet, is beyond me. In this land of great abundance and such careful attention to details like regularly distributed garbage receptacles, there can be no excuse, ever, except for ignorance and malice. I often think that people who show such small regard for their homes much be equally polluted inside. It’s
sort of the opposite of the old saying, “Garbage in, garbage out.” In this case, if there’s garbage going out - just anywhere - then there’s garbage in, too.
Well, it’s one more day of heavy-duty preparations for tomorrow’s show, and away we go. I promised to add bonus points to this week’s journal, and if I can remember and get things coordinated with our web whiz, I will do it for sure. Take care.
Erin