Treadmarkz

by Treadmarkz

Normally on Earth Day I won’t go any further out of my way to pick up a piece of garbage laying on the ground than I would on any other day. That was the purpose of Earth Day to begin with, right? To raise awareness that we need to take care of the planet all of the time? It was not an end unto itself. It was a starting point.

Today though, I found myself rolling down a stretch of road that has always been particularly well studded with cans, bottles, cigarette butts, sandwich wrappers, etc. This is probably so because it is also a well traveled stretch of road. So today I thought why not take advantage of this situation.

Because I have found that when able bodied people are driving along and they see a dude in a wheelchair rolling down the highway picking up garbage that for all they know, they could have left there themselves, it tends to raise eyebrows. And I hoped they were thinking:

“My God, I never realized what a pig I am until now!”

All kidding aside, I would never suggest that people in wheelchairs are any less sloppy than anyone else in their habits in the proper disposal of garbage. I am in no way any more “Green” than the next guy. But it is fun to use the disability you have been given to make a point. For instance, if I wasn’t in a wheelchair, I might be seen as just another tree-hugger trying to look environmentally conscious for at least one day (which, today, was pretty close to the truth). But because I am in a chair, I get…that look. You know the look that says “Wow, look at him go, even he’s getting into the act! Well, shoot, I’d better get out my celly and buy me a windmill to put in my yard right this instant to catch up!”
I didn’t get anyone to abandon their SUV in the middle of the road and walk to work instead. Maybe next year.