Driving down Hwy 67 the other day, I looked over at the mini-van beside me and saw a woman sitting in the driver's seat, completely enshrouded in the smoke from her cigarette, despite the fact her window was open just a crack. Just before I could wonder how someone could survive in an environment like that, she finished her cigarette and pushed the butt out the crack onto the roadway. And suddenly I was transported back to October of 1975.
October 11, 1975 is perhaps the best, at least most important, days of my life, because it's the day my wife and I were married. We had spent the week before that preparing for our wedding, and though those days were a blur, they too are a joyful memory. However, before that blissful week, I spent one of the worst weeks I can remember. And it was that week, the awful one, that I was transported back to.
I had just completed basic training in the Air Force, and Leslie had attended the graduation ceremonies. We had planned to get married after I finished my technical training in Mississippi, but after I arrived at Keesler AFB, I found that I had been bumped out of my class, and would have to wait three weeks until the next class began. And so, to keep me occupied, I was placed on Roads and Grounds duty. This duty consisted of walking all over the base, picking up trash. This duty was bad enough for me, because I had been raised to make the effort to deposit my trash in a trash can, rather than just throw it on the ground. However, what made this job horrifying to me was that 90 percent of the trash was cigarette butts.
Now, honestly, I find cigarette smoking to be a filthy habit, and foolish, too, given all the proof of the damage it does to your body. However, if someone wants to exercise their right to pollute themselves, I won't stand in the way. But to tell me, then, that I have to clean up their butts after them, this I find reprehensible.
Maybe a person justifies throwing a butt on the ground a slight injustice, because one is barely noticeable. Or, on the other hand, maybe she thinks, like an infant, once it's out of sight, it doesn't exist any more. Well, I'm here to tell you, it still DOES exist, and when enough people have the attitude that it doesn't matter, it IS noticeable, and someone DOES have to pick it up!
So, what I'm saying is, if you insist on living your life in a cloud of smoke, that's your prerogative. Just don't make someone else take care of your butt when you're finished with it.
Posts
