On a Mission

I may be on a new mission.  The town I live in doesn't have a recycling program.  And the town across the river has one but I can't find it.  Seriously, I looked online for the address but under "Location" it only listed the towns where recycling was available, not the actual address.  I did some driving yesterday with my bins in the back of the van trying to find these places.  I thought I knew where they might be.  I was wrong. 

Why is it so hard to recycle?  We hear everyday that this is what we should be doing but the resources are not available.  So I am going to do some research and see if I can't start some kind of program in my area.  I'm not promising anything but I will give it a try. It's not like I have anything else to do right. 

When I was younger it was easy to get recycling bins dropped off at our school.  Our Girl Scout troop did this.  Then for a few weeks the community filled it up.  After awhile the bins were picked up.  But since the bins were used so much they brought more to leave at the school.  If a junior Girl Scout troop can do that then why can't I with the help of some friends.  Who knows what will happen.  I just know that I shouldn't have to drive 30 or more miles to recycle.  It kind of defeats the purpose, don't you think?

We Are the CURE!

Last night I was thinking about an Earth Day t.v special that starred Neil Patrick Harris. All I could remember was that it was aired while I was still in grade school (early 90s) and that it really had an impact on me. So I decided to check out youtube. Everything is on youtube right? It was... in 11 parts.

I started to watch it. Smiling like a crazy person as I remembered the the insane crush I had on Doogie Howser M.D. Then I decided that maybe I should watch it with the rest of my family.

I took the laptop upstairs and we hooked it up to the T.V. It was late and my husband had decided to go on to bed. But the kids will use any excuse to stay up late so we watched the ABC Earth Day Special 1990.

It starred all kinds of famous stars... Robin Williams, Bugs Bunny, Neil Patrick Harris, Bette Middler, Kevin Costner, Will Smith, Queen Latifa.... so many!

The story line of the special was that Mother Earth was dying. We were killing her and she had given up hope that we could change our ways. My kids watched the entire special and were even discussing ways to help save Mother Earth. At one point in the show Mother Earth (Bette Middler) makes a comment that people get excited all the time to do something for the earth. But then something happens. Monday comes (the show aired on Sunday). Which means that sure we may be excited and say we are going to do all this stuff today but once the sun sets and rises again we have forgotten what we were going to do and the excitement is no longer there.

Ouch!!! Was she talking to me? I get excited about a lot of things and don't follow through with most of it. However, I honestly believe this is something so important that we cannot not follow through with it.

Take a moment to think of what the Earth was like while you were a child. Now look at it. Has it changed? Houses got bigger. Cars got bigger. There are so many new disposable items we purchase... like Take and Toss sippy cups. Computers and cell phones are discarded everyday for the newest version when the old version is just as great. We were suppose to take care of the Earth for our children. Did we? Is this the Earth we envisioned for for our young ones?

Like I mentioned in my last post I used to be all about the environment. Well I am trying to get that passion back and pass it on to my children. I think my husband is waiting for the excitement to wear off to see if this really lasts. But I think it will. Helping the environment is contagious. If I do it maybe others will follow my example. Its all really so simple. We complain about the government about not doing anything for the environment. But they are just following the example of the people and the majority of us are not actively helping the environment.

I encourage you to lead by example. First to your family, then friends and then to your community. I would love to see a recycling program in our town.

Mother Earth is very sick. That part is not just a made up story. She is sick and angry. Have you seen the news lately. All the hurricanes and nasty floods. We are the cause. But we can fix it. Because we are also the CURE!