Kathy said around the time I should be sleeping on January 26, 2008
I used to smoke. Quite a bit actually and in retrospect (hindsight is 202/20 right?) it was one of the few things I regret about my life. Not so much that I did it or tried it but that I let myself become addicted to it and I smoked so much. Of course I live without regrets as a general rule. But that was one thing I wish I had never started. I’m happy that I’ve not smoked or even wanted to for many many years, but I do understand the addiction. I know it’s hard to quit. What I don’t understand is the complete lack of regard many smokers have about the environment. Maybe it makes me uptight or a dirty hippy but nevertheless, I am positively SICK of cigarette butts. One of my larger pet peeves is seeing them on the beach. It’s the one place where you don’t want to see them scattered on the ground… your sandy oasis, littered with butts.
I’m not going to generalize and say all smokers do this, because that’s simply not true. Lots of smokers are very careful about not leaving their habit behind for others to step on or for kids to pick up while playing. But many people do. This might make for an unpopular topic but I’d really love to see smoking banned from beaches. Now before you go lighting a torch on my front yard and throwing bricks through my windows, I have to say that I, am guilty of this very heinous act myself. I smoked when I was young and didn’t care about anything but myself and if I could go back in time and find my 17 year old self on a beach sticking butts in the sand I would walk right up and punch myself in the teeth. Now, as a mom and a somewhat environmentally conscious person I see these laying all over the beach and get outright ill. I have to kick a pile out of the way to set my stuff down and then scour the premises nearby so that my kid won’t end up with one in his pail. Then there is the whole getting washed into the ocean and probably getting stuck in some animals blow-hole factor.
I know there is a million other things that people do to wreck the planet, and I am not a totally eco-green freak (yet) but this really bugs the crap out of me. There are smokers rights groups who are fighting smoking bans on public beaches in the “its not fair” vain but I don’t agree on this at all. Don’t you love how I disappear for a week and bust out this entry. How’s that for random?
from your moms.
I don’t think it’s too much to ask of smokers (or anybody, really) to clean up after themselves at the beach. If I smoke at the beach, then yeah, I’ll clean up the butts. Just as if I brought some beers to the beach, then yeah, I’d make sure to throw away the empties. It’s pretty simple.
But, god forbid that people burn an extra calorie or two and take their stuff to the trash can. Oh, no!
from Chicago
I JUST quit smoking, but I was always one of those who would either walk 2 steps to ditch the butt, or field strip it and put it in my pocket until I fould a trash can/ashtray. I DESPISED seeng butts all over the ground RIGHTNEXT to an ashtray. A nearly empty ashtray, so there wasn’t the excuse that it was too full.
And now that Illinois went smoke-free, I bet I’m going to see a lot more of that. Jerks.
from your moms.
What really chaps my ass is people that toss their trash anywhere - be it cigarette butts on the beach, diapers in the parking lot, or old sofas in the national forest. Yes, there are people who dump their old furniture in the national forest near where I live. Last time I was out in the woods taking photos of a remote stream, there was an empty Gatorade bottle floating in the water. WTF people? Clean up after yourselves! As my mom used to say, “The maid has the day off”
from your moms.
Ex-smoker as well, and yeah, the same things I used to do when I was young and smoked and didn’t give a fuck about anything or anyone but myself now annoy the shit out of me.
I’d support the illegalization of cigarettes. Nobody ever said people have the right to smoke. Society bans all kinds of things.
Maybe that’s a little extreme. Still.
from your moms.
Totally agree. Again, not all, but most smokers I know and see consider the world to be one big ashtray. It disgusts me to walk down the sidewalk, in a parking lot, down the boardwalk or on the beach a find it littered with butts. It’s so gross. Who wants to step on or lie next to that nasty shit?