Angels Wept
Published April 14, 2011 | 
Old man take a look at my life / I’m a lot like you
I need someone to love me / the whole day through
Ah, one look in my eyes / and you can tell that’s true. – neil young
Yeah, it’s time for another rant!… Must be spring. I can tell. You see, I can read the signs. I know when spring has a arrived and summer is coming because I get to start pulling rubbish from the lakes again. OK, so let me do my best Red Green here, “We’re all in this together!” If there is one thing old white guys love to do it’s complain, right? It’s how we validate our quickly passing existence. So let me do a bit of “validatin’ of my own: What the hell is wrong with these people!!?!?!?!
You come to a state park and stroll a lakeside trail sippin’ your Starbucks Frappuccino… then toss the empty bottle in the lake? I mean.. Seriously!? The snob in me expects to find Big Gulp cups… but Starbucks?? Is this what happens when you start mass producing coffee flavored chocolate milk for Qwicky Marts? OK, Starbucks.. I know it’s not you or the imagine you’re shootin’ for.. but pulling Starbucks Frapp out of my local lake… well… Yarg! Companies are so into putting their logos on everything.. Do they ever think of the effect created when their logos are on trash blowing along the sides of the highways or floating in the lake.. Starbucks, McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, Kwik-Trip & cigarette butts all together in a big heap. All trash, all a disgusting display of man’s contempt for his environment. It can’t be good for their image. If I knew my logos were going to be part of the world’s mountains of trash, I think I’d question my reasoning when it came to packaging. I mean, who want’s their brand all over this mess? Oh, and don’t get me started on fishing gear… Angels Wept!
Ahhhhh…. That’s better. The crotchety old man in me is soothed…
For the moment.
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3 Responses to Angels Wept
Hi Derrick,
Spring is messy everywhere you go. Around here, the land needs some cleaning up.
I haven’t come across much or any garbage in most of the rivers and lakes I’ve paddled in Canada, but meet the Trash Paddler in the eastern U.S. who feels the same as you, but travels many rivers and picks up and reports on all the garbage he rounds up each trip. It’s incredible! Scroll down and look at how big his haul is on some days. I don’t know how he even gets it all in to a kayak: http://www.trashpaddler.com/
Thanks for picking up what you find.
Cheers.
The BaffinPaddler
Hi,
Wow, great link! You’re right spring is the worst along the roads. In our area summer is when the garbage starts stacking up on the lake shores. We’ve hauled bags out too. I usually start hikes in popular areas with an empty backpack just to gather up the garbage I find along the way. The sad part to me, is that we seem to have just accepted it. It seems to me that if we can’t manage something so basic as trash, we’re hosed when it comes to bigger issues…..
Sad, but true…
I go kayaking at least twice a week, through some of Fort Lauderdale’s canals/waterways, and almost always come back with some garbage…
Twice a year, me & my group go out on a major crusade for cleaning, bringing larger bags & containers and picking up whatever we find along the way…
Why would you toss garbage in your own backyard, it is beyond me…