Clean up after yourself

Leave the World a Little Prettier

A messy problem

I'm not sure the fish like it here

Have you ever gone fishing or taken your kid to the park just to be tuned back by all the trash? It seems that some people think it is ok to litter since someone else will pick up after them. I’ve even been told once by an offender that they were creating jobs. But our natural resources are worth too much to take for granted this way. The truth is that in the state of North Carolina, where I live, there are only two government workers that are tasked with cleaning up the park systems from Fayetteville all the way to Wilmington. How often do you think they get to each park? The pictures in this post are all of a park near my home where I go fishing in the summer. They didn’t get around to it at all last year. Picking up after yourself might seem small in the scheme of things but when we don’t rely on the government to clean up after us we send a powerful message. When we clean up after ourselves we are saying through our actions that we don’t need as much control as they think. You might want to live in a nanny state, but on second thought you might not. The more dependent we are on the government the more control they will have on our lives. I for one want my son to grow up with the same if not higher level of freedom as I did.

What you can do about it

How many trash cans do you pass?

So what can you do about all the trash? For starts you can throw it away where it belongs. But that is only what’s expected. When you do take your child to the park try using other peoples litter problem as a way to teach them. Tell your children why we don’t litter. And if there is no trash receptacle carry it with you until you can get rid of it responsibly. But why not take it one step farther and leave the park a little cleaner than when you came. I always bring a plastic grocery bag with me for just that. Imagine if just one percent of our population picked up one piece of trash every day. That would be close to 400 thousand less coke cans, chip bags, beer bottles and fast food containers every day. That would mean 14.6 billion pieces of trash over the course of a year would not be contaminating our parks, streams and roadways.

How I tried to make a difference

Our children can't enjoy this park

Two summers ago my wife and I moved back to Fayetteville North Carolina for a job opportunity. I’ve taken to fishing quite a bit more in recent years and decided to look for a nice place where I could get away from it all from time to time. The first place I found was Lake Rim. When I pulled into a parking spot the first thing I say was that the locals thought this was a car wash. There were fast food bags and soda cans everywhere. I got out of the car and got my fishing gear thinking it can’t be that bad at the lake. I was wrong. The lake was even worse with broken beer bottles, tires, and used up bait containers just thrown everywhere. There was no way I could fish here. I started to get back in the car and drive off when something inside me snapped. Instead of going home I went to the park service building to complain. They agreed it was a problem but said it wasn’t their problem. So I asked whose problem it was. After much debate they pointed me in the right direction and I was off to the fish hatchery across the road. The guy in change of the fish hatchery said he wasn’t in charge of picking up trash either but that he could put me in contact with who was. We exchanged information and I went on my way. Several weeks later I went back to the hatchery to fallow up and was told there were only two people to clean all the parks in the aria and that they would get to it when they could. So I asked about putting together a group of volunteers. He told me he would have to get back to me on that. So I left and went straight to Lowes. I told the manager at Lowes my plans and he donated a five gallon water cooler and 30 pair of gloves. I went to Home Depot from there and they donated the use of a truck for the day. While at church that week I asked my Sunday school to help. I called all called my local friends to help as well. Everyone had something more important to do. I tried to set a new date. Still I was alone. So I picked a weekend and just did it. I brought the cooler with cold water and cups. I brought all the work gloves. And I brought the truck to take all the trash away. But I was alone.

68 bags full of stuff like this

I started at 8:00 in the morning. By 9:00 three fellow park goers were getting their glove dirty with me. By 11:00 two more pitched in. And by 1:00 in the afternoon there were eight of us in all, and we had removed 68 large industrial strength trash bags full of other peoples junk from the parking lot and around the lake. It took three and a half loads to get everything to the dump. I will never forget all those people who helped me. They didn’t help for personal gain or to impress anybody. They helped because there was a need and they were available. I’m not going to say you need to go to the extreme as I did. But just think how pretty the park near your home could be if you just left it a little cleaner every time you visit. I challenge you to pick up after yourself. And I challenge you further to teach your children why it is so important they do the same. Together we can all enjoy the beauty within our park system. And we don’t need to wait for someone else to make it happen.

I look forward to reading your comments on this post. I'd really like to know if you have any ideas on how we can encurage others not to litter.

God Bless America



Kate Smith

A prayer for all of America

In 1938, with war in Europe becoming more and more eminent, Irving Berlin, who was Jewish, and a first-generation European immigrant, felt it was time to revive a song he had written back in 1918. That song was “God Bless America.” He had written it while serving in the U.S. Army, but set it aside because it didn’t fit well with the “Yip Yip Yaphank” style he was pushing for. Things were different in 1938 and Berlin decided to revive the song on Armistice Day as a “peace song.” The version I have for you today is the very first recording of God Bless America as sung by Kate Smith. Berlin wanted his newly revived patriotic love song to bring together the nation. And as you will see from the video he was successful. There was even talk about making his song our national anthem, but the “Star Spangled Banner” had longevity on its side. So sit back and listen to Kate Smith bleed out the most beautiful rendition of God Bless America you will ever hear.

The first singing of "God Bless America"

Song Lyrics

While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,

Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free,

Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,

As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.

God Bless America,

Land that I love.

Stand beside her, and guide her

Through the night with a light from above.

From the mountains, to the prairies,

To the oceans, white with foam

God bless America, My home sweet home

God bless America, My home sweet home.

I look forward to hearing your comments on this post. I am intristed in knowing how this song makes you feel. Do you think we should have made this our natioal anthem? Why?

Change our Fiscal Nightmare

Practice fiscal responsibility in your own home first.

A sign we should all take to heart

Why in your home first

Anyone can go to a rally and hold up a sign that says “Hold the Pork” or “Stop the Spending.” But it is all for nothing if you don’t start in your own home. As a country that is governed by the people for the people it is no wonder our politicians see fit to use our hard earned money the same way we do. The average American is up to their eye balls in dept, and yes I am just as average as the next person. Like most families mine is only a month or two away from insolvency. The days of overspending and cheep credit are over. But we have the chance now to learn from our past mistakes and make the next recession a little easier by not repeating them. If we want to enact a lasting change in the way our government handles finances we must set the example for our children who will one day mature into our future leaders. We need to take charge of ourselves, learn from our mistakes, pull up our boots, get out of dept and stay that way. There are people who don’t need this advice because they are already practicing what they preach. To them I say thank you and promise the rest of us will catch up soon. I challenge you to get caught up and to live within your means. I challenge you to start putting away for the next rainy day. And I further challenge you to get your children involved in the process so they can see the fruits that are possible when a family goes through things together.

Ideas on implementation

·         Get your monthly bills together make a schedule of payment.

·         Go over what you owe and pay things off one at a time.

·         Find out what you can do without for now.

·         Get a second job to speed things up.

·         Unplug any electronics not in use.

·         Make sure the whole family is involved.

·         Start saving even if it’s only one dollar a month.

·         Get rid of all junk spending.

·         Save up for anything smaller than a car.

·         Reward yourself with a little something every now and then.

How my family is bringing fiscal responsibility into our home

As a new business owner that hasn’t seen a real profit yet I find my family finances are getting tighter by the day. My wife and I owe nearly $50,000.00 in student loans, we have creditors calling for money that doesn’t exist and to make things worse we have a new son that needs all the things a baby needs. We are staying afloat but barely. The thing that really makes our financial position hard on us though is the fact that it is completely our fault. If we hadn't been living as though rough times could never happen to us we would be enjoying ourselves much more now. My wife and I until recently were both secretly very worried about what the future had in store for us. That is until not too long ago when we decided to sit down together and start talking about it. We got together on the floor in our living room with all our bills. We had a huge pile of opened and unopened bills from doctors, creditors, utility companies, service providers and any number of other types. The first thing we did was get rid of all the duplicates and suddenly our stack was much smaller. Then we made two piles, one for monthly bills and the other for things that could wait. We made a schedule of all our incoming and outgoing money and then started seeing what we could do without. After looking at our bank statement we realized we ate out far too much, we didn’t need all the services we were paying for and I needed to keep my eyes closed when in line at the checkout. That was only the first step and I’m not fool enough to think everything is smooth sailing for here on out, but I know that with a whole lot of discipline and an equal amount of time we can dig out together. It’s going to take teamwork on both our sides and a commitment to learn new habits in order to enact a lasting financial change. But we're up to the challenge. are you?

Please feel free to leave your comments on this post. I look forward to any input you might provide. Also feel free to give me ideas how I can improve on this post.