In advance of Earth Day, a mini-rant/while which, fittingly enough, most probably recycles past SNLC motifs (but given 8 years of SNLC's, topic repetition shouldn't be a surprise). In that vein, wouldn't it be nice if:
* every single aluminum can got recycled
* all glass bottles got recycled
* all plastic bottles got recycled
* every sheet of non-glossy paper (office paper, newspaper) got recycled
* all magazines & catalogs got recycled
* all cardboard boxes got recycled
You get it. More (kind of) below the flip.....
In that spirit, wouldn't it also be nice if:
* we only used as much electricity as we needed to
* we did not waste a single drop of water
* we drove only as much as we have to, with as many people per vehicle as is efficient and safe
* we never wasted any food, either cooking at home or eating out (especially eating out)
Again, you get the idea. The meta-catch, of course, is that being this conscientious about not wasting resources and watching every bit of resource that we use takes a lot of concentration and mental stamina, on the part of all of us. I don't think that any of us meets that ultra-high standard all the time, day in, day out. I know that I don't, always, as I've fallen asleep at home on a few occasions w/o turning out all the lights or turning off the CD player. And how many of us are willing to adjust the AC in the summer maybe 1 degree higher, or the heat 1 degree lower, to trim utility bills a little? Talking about being green, and ripping on know-nothing, climate change-denying and resource-gluttonous Republicans are all fun and self-gratifying. But we have to live and observe all the things that we claim that the wingnuts don't do. Our side can be just as wasteful on resources too, because we all don't think about every little bit of resource, all the time.
All this is just our actions as individuals, of course. It's also frustrating at work to see the stray aluminum can and plastic bottle in the trash, when there are recycling containers for each in the break room areas. It's just that there's only one on each floor, and one has to walk over to put the recyclables there. I'm willing to do that, but not everyone is, evidently. But in fairness, it is godd to see that lots of recyclables do make their way to the recycling center, or the single-stream recycling container in the alley behind my place. So many individuals are indeed with the program, at least to some degree.
With that, time for the usual SNLC protocol, namely your loser stories of the week......