It's Your Civic Duty

There are too many people in our society who act selfishly and think they can do whatever they want, without considering others. One example of this that bothers me most is littering (or degrading the environment in general), which we have touched on in class. The problem we discussed was a young girl in a car with a parent who threw a wrapper out the window, and the parent didn't do anything. Many people in class were saying it's none of your business; it's the parent's job to raise their own kid. But I disagree, I think it is the business of everyone in the community, because it affects everybody. I think people were thinking of the situation as a single occurrence; one wrapper isn't gonna do anything.  But if this girl isn't taught not to litter she'll keep doing it her whole life.  it isn't fair that because she doesn't care the people and environment have to deal with a dirtier world.  This problem goes farther than littering.  Though not always a conscious decision, people who do things like leave lights on all the time are acting irresponsibly. They're polluting the environment even though they can't directly see that pollution.  It's at some far away power plant so it's easy to forget what you're doing.  But I'm sure that if they could directly see or experience the affects of the air pollution they're causing, people would be quick to reduce energy consumption.  Since people act in their own self interest they don't think about the consequences. Hey, maybe global warming isn't so bad after all if it'll show people what they're doing and get them to use less!