Every one of us at time have the need to simply complain. So here is your chance...what really upsets you, or what has happened recently that has you needing to let off some steam?

I get VERY steamed when I go out to an otherwise beautiful lake or river, and find that people have left cans, glass, plastic, cardboard, cigarrette butts, and other garbage all over the place, as if they feel that they are more important than anyone else (or any animal) who might also want to enjoy that location. It is also the reason why when we go out camping, fishing, herb gathering, or whatever, we ALWAYS come back with between 2 and 10 times more garbage than we got there with.

I don't like kids. And I don't like people who pop their gum. It irritates me all to hell!

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You are the place where I find shelter left out in the cold.
You are the Hell in helter skelter

If I ever get to retire, this is a good idea. I'd like to organize a group to go out and do trash collecting.

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That isn't a bad idea at all. I'm actually working on a paper to submit to the FS to make that area a designated camp site, then get them to pay me to be a host out there. (It would need to pay well enough to make payments on a travel trailer.) I can go wireless for an internet connection, so if they go for it, I would still be able to work at my current job.

There are a few sites that we go to that are on Forest Service land. On one particular site, the Forest Service actually pays a retired person to come in once a week to pick up, AND they have a full time FS employee that makes a circuit of about 6 sites, including that one, doing nothing but garbage pickup, AND they have an entire FS crew go in 2-3 times a year to pick up garbage, plus we always haul out lots of garbage, and it still isn't enough. I would not be upset if the FS closed the area...I'd understand it, even though that would be one less place to fish, camp, gather, and enjoy. They also chop down green trees for their camp fires, but also steams me. Living trees smolder, they don't burn worth a hoot, and there is always deadfall all over the place out there that they can burn.

Where do you dump the trash? Doesn't the FS have designated dump sites?

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There is a land fill about 4 miles from the site, operated by the county, and the FS dumps there. Personally, I just bring it home and dump it with my trash, so it doesn't really cost me any extra. It is just the time and effort involved. If a volunteer group did something like that here, most likely, the fs would supply the plastic bags, and they'd just pick up the full bags and dump them. The one fs employee that checks the 6 sites is responsible for emptying the garbage cans at the improved sites anyway, so monitarily, it wouldn't cost the fs any extra, and the savings in man power for not having to actually pick up the trash would be substantial.

When my son was in high school, he was an avid kayaker. The School organized several public service exercises that were to be performed once each week for an entire semester, and one he greatly appreciated and was very active in was with shore cleanup of many of the rivers and streams that he kayaked. The picked up removed literally tons of tires, junk car parts, bottles and cans, etc, and it has created in him an on-going commitment to the environment.

Perhaps, Rev Rex, you could organize a similar effort with some of the public and private schools in your area to conduct a similar program. It's amazing what a group of 8-12 young people can accomplish in just a few hours each week! Obviously, my son has made me proud in so many ways, and this is just one of many!

Geshtinnanna, he doesn't chew or snap gum, and I think you would like him. But then again, he will be turning 21 next week, and you might not consider him a kid. Perhaps you meant very young kids, eh? --Steve--

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That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world is the union of all its peoples in one universal Cause, one common Faith
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 255)

To quote that great American philosopher, W.C. Fields, "I'm particularly fond of babies....Girl babies, around 19 or 20...

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Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control;
these three alone lead one to sovereign power.
Tennyson