What is luck? A more compelling question is what prompts people that invest in scratch lottery tickets only to thoughtlessly toss the losing one away at the point of their dismay? I have the unfortunate opportunity to see the amount of discarded tickets that accumulate along roadsides. No thoroughfare is exempt. They are everywhere, bent, folded and flapping in the ground level breeze of traffic.

I am disgusted by this. Have we become so lazy a society that we feel it necessary to throw everything unwanted out our vehicle windows? There has always been a degree of blatant disregard for our environment by many. However, it appears that the lack of respect has grown exponentially with the amount of traffic. I expected more from the public and perhaps this is where I was in error. Once regarded as a place where beauty was next to none, Maine is no longer, in my mind, the way life should be. It’s just the way it is, period.

I walk everyday, and everyday I see new additions to the filth added to our roads. Patrolling these roads to extricate the trash would be an endless task. And while there has been an increase in old lottery tickets over the past year, it does not end there. Fast food bags, beverage containers, diapers and yes, even condoms. Where is our sense of decency? Surely we are all not all pigs, yet this is how we are conducting ourselves.

I remember a time not so long ago when barges full of heaped trash could be seen making their way to the dump. Those visions are no longer present and now it is clear to me why. We don’t need dumps when we have road shoulders. I also remember a public service ad long ago showing a native American Indian looking at pollution with a tear rolling down his cheek. Many of the guilty trash party are no doubt too young to remember this. But parents are not. To this end the careless and the non-caring is not age- or gender-specific.

You know who you are. Put trash in its place and stop thinking about what is convenient for you. Life is not about you. As for the lottery tickets, don’t let being a loser roll over to the way you conduct yourself. Try giving something back to the environment besides a reminder that we become to complacent

Stephen Signor

Windham


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