It is imperative to awaken early, to better prepare for the festivities of this annual celebration. Yes, it’s better to rise before the sun brings the sweltering heat which makes this loathsome task even more-so… loathable. Wait a minute…festivities, celebration and loathsome? The loathing doesn’t seem to fit or make sense, but it does when
you’re speaking of the 8th anniversary of the Have Chainsaw Will Travel Annual Anti-Litter Campaign (or the HCSAWWTAALC Part 8 for short).
Reluctantly I don a camera strap. Normally Lil Red accompanies me and provides principal photography for this annual article. However, this year she declined due to the disheartening nature of the photo’s subject matter – riverside and shoreline litter. Thus I trudge out on my lonesome, my outlook is positive, hoping this time things will be different, but it is always disappointing to be disappointed.
Almost immediately there are multiple photo ops. The piles of refuse seem almost hopeful; as though people are starting to get the idea and at least gathering their waste. However there is an equal amount strewn around, so it cancels out. Ah, and of course there is a tire in the water…there’s always a tire in the water and, yeah, it’s a different tire each year…sigh. Oh and what would this pictorial be without – dat da da dah – some broken glass… shards… everywhere. For gawd’s sake if you’re not going to pick it up, at least don’t break it!
Thus yet another year’s worth of failed anti-litter sentiment. Guess I’ll just go back home, sort these pics out and write about what incredible a-holes litterbugs are… but wait, what is this??? There is a brilliant light at the end of the garbage pile! Out of nowhere, (well actually out of a small white station wagon) there comes a ray of hope.
The young man pictured is Aaron Choate and he came to the river today to do a little shoreline fishing and brought with him a solution to lakeside litter. The concept he had and followed was so beautifully simplistic anyone could and should do it: he brought along a bucket.
Aaron told me that as he fished his way down the shore, he picked up any trash he encountered, using the bucket to transport it back to the trash bins provided when he was done for the day. As unneeded proof of his good intentions, after I had left the river, he later sent me a photo of the morning’s catch- (see photo lower right). Aaron, if you’re reading this I want to THANK YOU for making my day, for making my efforts seem less pointless and for helping make our shores a more pleasant place, litter free! Thanks man, you are a helluva guy!!!
Now… as for the rest of you jackasses. Was it irony, coincidence or fate, that on the morning I go to take pictures for an anti-litter article, meeting a true anti-litter activist? Let’s call it fitting, as one man proves how easy it is to not only pick-up after oneself, but to pick up after those who are too stupid to do so. We should all learn from his example and the logic that all you need to make the world a better place is to bring a bucket!
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Hope to hear from ya, until then try and stay focused. See ya!
