Every year we at New York Parenting join in the annual celebration of our planet and we encourage all the families in our communities to do so as well.
In this issue author Christina Katz has eleven ways to help us raise global citizens. In addition Dr. Heidi Smith Luedtke gives us ideas for five Earth Day parties to reinforce the idea of going green.
We can’t emphasize this enough for our children, that is, the importance of this being a priority for their future and the future of their children. Oscar Hammerstein, the great librettist and humanist, said it so eloquently, “You have to be carefully taught.” We must carefully and purposefully teach our children by example most of all, how to nurture our world/their world.
We must bend down and pick up the discarded trash and papers, even if someone else did it. We must form cleanup committees and get block efforts going in beautifying our communities. We must not only recycle but we should compost. We must make less waste and value longevity in the items we possess. Too much trash, too much new stuff is the mantra of our times and it was really great to remember a time when things sold themselves by the advertisement “made to last a lifetime.”
We’re getting better although as I go around the city I’m still seeing plastic bags in the trees and cigarette butts all over the sidewalks. What makes a person who is otherwise a solid citizen throw their refuse out of their car windows and/or on to the sidewalk? What kind of carelessness is this? I see it as the “I couldn’t care less” mode of thinking and acting. Shameful stuff.
I would like to challenge all my neighbors to bend down and pick it up and get your children in the plan too. Next time you go shopping make sure you have your own bags with you and eliminate the need to have them pack your things in plastic. Other cities have banned them entirely. We should be on that wavelength too.
Having your own cup will eliminate the need for all these discarded cups. Have your own and let them fill your coffee or tea or whatever in a cup that you will take home or to the workplace and wash out. Save the earth! Save the unnecessary trash that we produce and the clutter that it brings to our surroundings. If everyone did something we could make a huge dent in the present horror of contemporary waste.
I know I’m not alone and that if we work together and we get our families in on the plan that we can make a striking change that will launch around our globe. Everyone has a part to play. Everyone counts.
Thanks for reading.
