NO MORE SHALLOW THINKING!!

     Still in the mode of thinking about general behaviors, as we walk around this community, I frequently notice plastic bags of yard waste sitting at the ends of driveways, obviously having been there for more than a week. I wonder what, if anything, goes through the minds of the residents who have placed those bags there. If time is taken to investigate how waste is to be dealt with in the community, it is clearly explained for every item small or large, trash, recycling, yard waste, and occasional appliance or construction waste. So, maybe not everybody takes the time (as we did when we first arrived here) to find out what is expected. When taxes are paid to provide services, there should be some involvement in determining what to expect and when- snow removal, waste removal, vehicle registration and parking, building permits, etc. How long will the plastic bag residents leave the bags by the street before making the effort to find out why they have not been picked up? Will they just complain about how their taxes are being wasted if their stuff isn't picked up? By the way, yard waste here is collected only in open bins, tied bundles, recyclable paper sacks with stickers, or during the fall you can rake piles of leaves to the curb to be vacuumed on appointed days. There is already a need to pay drivers for the garbage trucks and can-handlers to pick up and empty the cans, the same for recyclables as well as people somewhere who sort metal, paper, plastic, etc. from the actual garbage that some people stick in rather than try to figure out what is actually recyclable. It's so much easier to gripe about things than to take the time to analyze why something is the way it is. and what responsibility one might be neglecting.
     Not exactly the same yet requiring the same level of thought, there are groups- recently in the news here in a little town in VA but also in existence all over the world- who claim superiority. Whether it's radical Muslims claiming all infidels should be slain or radical "whites" claiming superiority over other races/religions or simply angry individuals who find cause to accuse other drivers, neighbors, family members, or whoever with the implication that what they see in others is inferior to themselves and deserves punishment- is that really helpful? As I type this, I wonder if I am doing the very things I'm writing about. But I'm not demanding laws nor punishments. I only wish to remind people that it's important to take the time to think more deeply and thoroughly. The Golden Rule- do unto others as you would have them do unto you- as well as the Dutch proverb about everybody cleaning their own doorstep so the whole community can be clean or even the Kant philosophy of nobody having the right to do something that if done by all would destroy society, ALL different ways of expressing a very wise counsel to really think about what you are doing or saying. If everybody just does whatever they feel like or is convenient for them without thought for anyone else, chaos and contention ensue. It doesn't really require a certain religion with specific rules or even mandated civil laws! Can't we just be thoughtful and kind so society is more comfortable for everyone? Isn't it logical??