Appreciation

I ran into an acquaintance at lunch the other day and we talked about what we did over the summer.  I said that I had gone to Europe and she responded that she bet that made me really appreciate the U.S. I nodded and smiled while thinking, not exactly. The European countries in which I traveled are known for their clean cities and pristine lakes. Europe has been "green" far longer than we have and it shows.

I have not traveled all over the United States but I've driven enough miles to say with relative confidence that many of our highways are eyesores.  One can't see the desert for the billboards or the forest for the litter. The beaches of the Pacific are scattered with plastics, syringes, and styrofoam.  The water is especially dangerous after a storm when the run-off from the cities washes bacteria, oil and garbage into the sea.

Downtown Los Angeles and Hollywood, prime tourist spots, sport filthy sidewalks, graffiti, and gutters of trash. I understand the attraction of Hollywood, the well-publicized sunny weather, and Disneyland. But as far as spending time seeing the city attractions I am mystified.

I've been to Olvera Street which is dirty and unpleasant and to the Disney Concert Hall which is surrounded by ugly parking lots and weedy vacant lots. The downtown music center is lovely but don't travel too far from it. Other districts such as the garment and toy districts are seedy at best and filthy at worst. The Natural History Museum and the Science Museum are great attractions, but again the surrounding area is marginal. Nowhere does city government take a sustained interest in keeping Los Angeles clean and attractive.

Contrast that with the relatively trash free cities of Munich, Salzburg, and Vienna.  Smaller towns and villages are even cleaner.  Tourist sites are especially well maintained. Given the number of tourists from all over the world it must take a herculean effort on the part of the state to keep places clean.

I'll grant you that they have more rules and regulations and pay more taxes than we do but in exchange they get clean cities, fine beers and chocolates, and health care.  Their lakes are not fouled by jet skis or used as garbage dumps. I didn't get to the ocean but the Ligurian Sea in Italy was lovely and clean when I was there a few years ago.

At this point, given the current political infighting and the  effort to NOT provide health care for every citizen, I'm not sure I do appreciate living here. The attitude of the populace seems to be that of a spoiled, self-centered toddler.  No one is willing to give up anything they like for the greater good. Not shark fin soup, not four wheeling in fragile habitats, not  enormous houses, nothing. Most aren't even willing to pick up their own trash.  We all want to blame someone else for the dirty world we live in but we are the culprits, tossing cigarette butts out of car windows, discarding fast food wrappers in parking lots, and even leaving dirty diapers in stores.

Given all of that, I'd like to try living somewhere else for a time. A place that's clean where people give a damn about society as a whole not just their own small piece of it.