As Christians let’s proactively set the world right. 

 

Now when I walk in Starbucks I ask for a coffee mug and/or a drinking glass without a straw.  I used to get a cardboard or plastic cup to hold my one time drink in.  But I wised up, and I do this because I care about the environment.  Even if it is subtle (so subtle), I want to help alleviate the strain on the environment by doing something simple and practical.  

 

I pray that the drive-thru in China fails.  Because when I look around small town Joplin Missouri, I think of all the fast food restaurants.  To be honest, it is a cornucopia of fast food chains.  They all give you card board or Styrofoam cups, plastic straws, paper sacks, paper napkins, plastic or wax wrappers, card board boxes.  We use these items one time.  And then they get thrown in a landfill.  Think about the waist.  We are strangling the environment.  I sure hope China avoids our lifestyle. 

 

What if McDonald’s abolished the drive-thru and gave real glasses and plates when you came in?  Would this be too big of a change for us…would Americans like us be too prideful to embrace such a shift?  What good effects would that have on the environment?  How many McDonald’s are there in the world?  Over 30 thousand.  Not to mention Wendy’s, Hardee’s, Taco Bell, Long John Silvers, Sonic etc…  Landfill central.  All we need is for one leading chain to set a precedent and the others would be forced to follow.  Here is our refrain:  “Cardboard is against the Lord!”  Give me a glass and I’ll pick up my trash!”  “Drive-thrus are for bad citizens!”       

 

That is why I love Booches in Columbia, MO… they give you a washable glass and a sheet of wax paper…there is little to no waist in that.  Booches is setting an environmental precedent that other businesses should follow.  I have two thumbs up for Booches.   USA Today placed Booches in the top ten of best burgers in America in 2000.  Environmentally friendly and good, could we ask for more?          

 

Chinese children wear split-pants.  I sure hope they don’t feel the need to switch to diapers any time soon.  Because I’m not sure the environment could sustain the switch. On average how many diapers does one child use a day?  How many children are there in China?  How many diapers would that be a day?  I hope that society doesn’t promote the sophistication of diapers to the Chinese population.  I hope it remains un-cool.  In reality the American way is un-cool because we pay for a way for our children to sit in their own feces until we find it convenient to clean it up.  China; doesn’t that sound a bit uncivilized to your ears?  You don’t want to be like us, do you?  We are weird.      

 

The EPA reported that 50 million diapers are being thrown into landfills every day in America, and each one can take up to 500 years to biodegrade.  I did the math and that is over 18 billion diapers a year. America has become oblivious to itself.    

 

As Christians let’s proactively set the world right. 

 

–Pick up your trash and shake your glass… -Eric 

 

P.S. I was watching C-SPAN2  the other day and I saw the black community rallying for national justice. Marion Barry (former mayor of Washington D.C.) got up and said, “It doesn’t matter whether you’re a PHD or a no D…Racism is alive!” And then an old bearded man by the name of Dick Gregory got up and said that “the strongest two forces in America has always been the black woman and the black Church.”  In this march for justice he went on to say that “they (the Justice Department) ain’t never been good.  And we gonna treat em like roaches…we ain’t gonna  cuss at em… we ain’t gonna spit on em… we gonna turn the light on em!”