Walt Longmire, the lead character in the television series “Longmire,” which is available now on Netflix, rarely met a piece of garbage he didn’t want to pick up. The no-nonsense sheriff of fictional Absaroka County in Wyoming uses his skills to solve murders in this incredibly entertaining modern-day Western. He also uses his hands to keep his county clean. We could all learn from Walt.
With the snow now melted here in central Iowa, the ugly pollution of the prior months is now uncovered. Plastic is the main culprit. Plastic bags. Plastic cups. Plastic bottles. There is no doubt that plastic has made our world better in some ways, but it is a serious problem in others. Unfortunately, we too often overlook it. Take a glance at our roadsides, ditches and fencerows, and you will quickly see the magnitude of the problem.
Earth Day is Friday, April 22. That’s 16 days away for those of you who don’t want to do the math. I have written past columns urging readers to pick up one piece of garbage on Earth Day and explained how powerful that could be. But that’s just one day. We can do better.
So here is my challenge. Starting today, and for the next 16 days, I ask that each of the 10,000 or so subscribers to this newsletter pick up two pieces of garbage off the ground each day. Here’s some more math for you. That would total 20,000 pieces per day or 320,000 pieces between now and Earth Day. What a great start that would be. And if you know anything about forming habits, you will realize, if you do this for 16 days, you will likely continue to do it.
To make this effort even stronger, I ask you to recycle as many of those materials as you can to avoid simply moving the trash from one part of our planet to another.
Together, we can make quite an impact and help beautify our communities. Most all of us would certainly be proud of this. Walt Longmire would, too.
Have a thoughtful Thursday, and thanks for reading.
Shane Goodman
President and Publisher
Big Green Umbrella Media
shane@dmcityview.com
515-953-4822, ext. 305 | 
