Littering

I thought that I lived in the enlightened 21st Century. When I was a kid, I read Arthur Clarke and Robert Heinlein and others and dreamed of the wonders of the 21st Century.


I grew up in the 60s. Way back then, way back 50 years ago, I learned to be respectful of the planet. Don't litter, don't pollute, and don't attempt to use up all of Earth's resources in my generation.


Am I the last one left of that generation?


Now, this may seem off topic, but I really hate smokers. Not only is their habit disgusting, but it seems to make them stupid. How often have a watched a smoker in a car in front of me drop a cigarette butt out the window without a thought, as if a cigarette butt isn't litter. One day I even watched someone open their door and dump their whole ashtray out on the ground at a stop light.


What are they thinking? Are they thinking? I think that smoking kills brain cells.


Then I was driving along behind someone and they threw a plastic wrapper out the window. I felt like running into them from behind...justifiable vehicular assault and battery in my opinion. Then they lit up a cigarette. Damn smokers again.


I grew up in California in the 60s. I was a Boy Scout. Littering is something that was knocked out of me more than 40 years ago. When I came to Texas 30 years ago, I was shocked to meet good ole boys who didn't seem to think twice about throwing beer cans out onto the side of the road.


Even the years of Don't Mess with Texas ads haven't seemed to cure the problem.


Yes, this is just a rant, and yet I don't really want it to come off as an anti-Texas rant. I have to assume that other places, at least some of them, must be just as bad, but I live in Austin, Texas, so that is the only place I can use as an example.


So, Texas smokers....quit littering.