Really??

Picture this.
It's Sunday. Warm, sunny, the wind is blowing through my hair. I am painting the front porch (black, for all of you who are wondering) at my home in the city. I step back and I'm admiring my hard work when I hear a rustling behind me. The wind has blown a garbage bag in my direction. I pick it up and look up and down the street. There is so much trash on the streets. The wind is blowing it all around the neighborhood. I watch as people walk by and the aggravation begins to settle in. I grab a garbage bag and some gloves and begin to pick up the trash near my house. Not only do I take pride in the house I own, but I'm also trying to sell this puppy and it needs to look decent!

As I'm picking things up off the ground, my elderly neighbor steps outside and calls out to me in his raspy voice, "Are you getting paid for this??!" Immediately I am shocked! Has he no pride in his house? Does he not want it to look neat? Does he not care about the appearance of his neighborhood?

So I reply, "Well, just take a look at this mess! I might as well try to make this area look decent!" I bite my tongue then, because what I really want to say is, "Really?? Really?? In my classroom, when there is something on the floor, I teach my kids to pick things up, even if they had not made the mess. I teach them to take pride in their things and their classroom. THIS is why this city has a bad reputation! THIS is why the streets of this city are littered! Everyone blames everyone else, and NO ONE takes responsibility to clean it up. Your attitude, old man, is why this city looks the way it does."

So, I continued to clean up. And I made sure our area of the sidewalk (and his-just to prove a point) was as clean as possible. But I'm still a little peeved. If every homeowner on each block picked up the trash just in front of his house, the city would look a whole lot cleaner and appealing to outsiders. Property values would increase. Pride in ownership would be evident. The city needs this.

I'm only one girl and don't have the power to change very much. But, I sure as hell want to do something about it.