Don’t litter our island

To the Forum:Although I truly believe in the right to choose one’s own

actions and destinies, I believe that along with that right also comes certain

responsibilities and considerations of others. I sometimes have to really

wonder what some people could possibly be thinking or if in fact they are

thinking at all. I don’t in any way say this out of meanness but out of real,

sincere concern.

The other day I was driving home from taking my children

to school when all of a sudden the person driving in front of me, carelessly,

mindlessly, threw a lit cigarette out of the car window. I had to take a deep

breath and ask myself, what could this person possibly be thinking?

Maybe I

am not aware of it and later on the cigarette butt patrol comes along and

miraculously removes these butts from our beautiful island of Kaua’i, but if

not what gives these people the right to litter our island with their bad

habit? And I say these people, because this isn’t by any means the first time

I’ve seen this happen.

There have also been numerous times I’ve been

walking along the beach looking for the perfect spot to lay my children’s beach

towel, only to have to first remove, again, the cigarette butts someone has

carelessly left waiting for the cigarette patrol to come and remove. What a way

to completely ruin the beautiful serene experience of the beach.

Isn’t it

bad enough we have to allow our air to be polluted by their freedom of choice

to smoke?

I wonder if these people walk around their own homes tossing lit

cigarette butts carelessly in the air when they are finished. I think

not.

Please people, if you have to smoke, take responsibility. Don’t litter

our island and put your butts where they belong — IN THE

TRASH!

Christina Nelsen Alves

Wailua Homesteads