Environmental issues

I was looking through one of my rag mags the other day and noticed a couple of things that sent a chuckle to erupt from my belly.

Environmentalists.

Ok, I can get behind recycling, no littering, reusing, making sure our vehicles aren't spewing out black smoke all over and generally doing the best I can to preserve mother earth. I am one to tell my kids to stop pulling the grass out or to stop tearing leaves off the trees or to leave the wildflowers be...I really do appreciate beauty.

When we had our first baby, I was a pretty freakish mom, looking back. I dared to attempt to use cloth diapers. This went on for about a month before I realized and appreciated all that our parents endured with us. My mom raised all 8 of her kids in cloth diapers but never did I realize just how much work it was for her to do this until I did so with our daughter.

I didn't to use disposable diapers knowing just how horrible they were for the environment. At that time, they were still of the plastic outer shell for them. Oh, I tried to endure the smell, the nastiness of cleaning out the dirty ones and the daily washings but one disposable diaper was all it took for me to change that mentality. And I felt guilty because I didn't want to add to the waste pile. So we resorted to other ways in which to try to help the cause of saving the planet and for the most part, it eased my guilt.

Paging through my magazine, there was a star with her baby on her hip with a disposable diaper and another toting paper bags from the store and numerous others doing much of the same. Barbara Striesand (sp?) going on tour for her cause while her entourage follows in their diesel filled buses and Al Gore of course flying in his jets. Heck, most of them own their own personal aircraft these days.

So I got to thinking about how it is that some, not all hollywood actors/actress' preach about the environment yet in reality, they do exactly the things that they want all of us little peons to stop doing? How would they manage without the luxury of a private jet, or boat, or their buses? How would they manage to shop if they didn't have bags in which to put all of their purchases in? Perhaps that was an example Winona Ryder was trying to get across all those years ago when she got caught shoplifting, she was using her purse instead of a paper/plastic bag in which to carry her things out and just forgot to pay? And they dared to accuse her of shoplifting...hmph!

The hypocricy of it is almost more than I can deal with. Pat and I decided that they are the only ones who can do these things. That by getting the rest of us lowly, blue collar and white collar workers to stop abusing the environment that leaves more room for them to do whatever they want.