One man's trash...

is still trash when someone leaves it in a public space. Grrrrr.

Since my neck decided to fail me on Monday and laid me up in bed on Tuesday, I thought I might be smart and ride the bus to work today. The morning commute proceeded normally (and pretty quickly - it took slightly less than the usual hour to get to work). The trigger for my rant happened on the evening commute.

A young lady with a fast food establishment uniform on boarded the bus with a nearly empty soda cup from (I assume) her place of employment. She sat. She took one or two sips. She jiggled the cup slightly. She bent and placed the cup as far under her seat as she could reach. She then switched seats. And rode for 25 minutes. And then debarked the bus without her cup.

A soccer league plays soccer (as opposed to jai alai, I guess) in the park across the street every weekend. They seem to be fairly tidy folks. But non-league players also play soccer in the same park. They hang out. They play soccer. They leave. They leave behind beer bottles. And fast food wrappers. And, one time, a diaper. A *used* diaper.

I'm not sure what I want to say. Anyone reading this is not the sort of person who would leave trash behind. Everyone I know who would bother reading my words would carry their trash with them and deposit it in a trash container, whether it's 4 feet away or 40 feet away. But I get tired of picking up other people's messes. And I shouldn't need to shame someone (or 15 someones) into picking up their trash. And calling the police is excessive, and a waste of their already overextended resources.

Of course, respect for self sits at the root of this problem. If someone respects themself, they will not leave trash behind because that reflects badly on them. I just need to figure out how to impart that to others without being condescending or patronizing.