LETTER: Teen's effort to clean Vineland is inspiring

The Daily Journal

Re: "#CleantheVine" (DJ, video)

This was an inspiring story about a young man who is to be commended for his positive actions regarding unacceptable trash on local streets.

Some people think teenagers today are selfish and don’t care about anything other than texting and tweeting, but Tyler Kimmel is actually doing something positive to improve an area that he cares about.

Over a year ago, traveling throughout Scotland, Wales and England, I fell in love with the countryside and the charming towns with their friendly residents. I took over 2,000 pictures, never deciding to not take a picture because of litter. I didn’t have to think about it because it just wasn’t there.

After returning home, I was, as usual, visually assaulted by the large amount of litter strewn along almost every roadside in this area. It was then that I realized there was a lack of litter in Great Britain, so to double-check my memory, I went back through all my pictures, looking for any that displayed roadside or sidewalk trash.

I did find two pictures, one with a white blob on a roadside and one with a piece of paper on a sidewalk. So why is it that other countries and even some states in the U.S. — Virginia comes to mind — are so much cleaner. Do locals really have such disrespect for our habitat, and do we neglect to teach our children that it is unacceptable to foul our own nest?

Clearly there is much work to be done, but with the effort of young people like Tyler Kimmel, maybe we can all learn to care for our environment, our small portion of this planet. I’m pretty much beyond the age and physical ability to help, but we can all agree to not add to the problem.

So, again, kudos to Kimmel and let’s hope others will join him to #CleantheVine.

Bettie J. Reina