Thursday, July 29, 2010

my little soapbox...


Most people who know me well, know that I am incredibly opinionated. I actually really hate this characteristic about myself; sometimes I wish I could turn my brain off at about the point where I start developing opinions about things. I try to keep most controversial and offensive opinions to myself as I would like to continue having friends...

With that said I cannot hold it in any longer, I have two very strong opinions about some things that lately have been driving me crazy! First, it recently came to my attention that President Obama smokes cigarettes! Not just once in a while, but habitually; like on a daily basis! Is that not the most ridiculous thing you have ever heard? I have issues with smoking - I think it is disgusting, I don't understand the allure of purposely doing something to harm your body, and I can't stand the fact that smokers don't seem to have any respect for the air I am breathing (they seem to be so put out when you ask them to move out of the non-smoking sections - people, I can't breathe. Maybe I should start carrying around a can of yucky-smelling hairspray and spray it in their direction. Let's see how well they can breathe then). I think it shows a huge lapse in good judgement; plus I wonder how no one seemed to know this about the President when he was running for office. It seems to me that most educated people upon hearing that a candidate smokes on a regular basis would also thereby figure he must be an idiot and not vote for him. If you are going show poor enough judgement to even start smoking and then continue smoking into your mature years then I think you must be just down-right stupid! I know, that was the highly-emotional, opinionated Emily speaking...I will tone it down now. I try and not spew too much garbage out about the President; I think that is somewhat disrespectful (even though I really don't like him all that much), but in this case it infuriates me; especially since his wife's entire agenda is focused on healthy lifestyle habits for children. Well shouldn't her husband, the President, be the first to set a good example?! I mean, duh! Okay, I am done with this issue, on to the next.

This one really gets me; mainly because I see it as a problem everywhere. Littering! All through my public schooling years it was pounded into us that LITTERING IS BAD - basically the worse sin you could commit in society. Our society definitely frowns on littering, yet I see people blatantly littering ALL the time. About a year ago I was at a stoplight and in the car next to me the man cracked his window and out came an empty bag of chips. Oh but that is just the beginning. This was not your stereotypical person, the kind you might expect to litter or at least wouldn't be surprised if littered. This man was about 45-50, well-groomed, and driving an Escalade! What? I was baffled! Since then I have probably seen it four or five times; someone cracking their window and throwing out the trash - it makes me really mad. Have some respect, some decency. Where were these people when Mr. Wienburg (my 5th grade teacher) was talking to us about the perils of littering? It is the epitome of laziness. Almost as lazy as not even trying to quit smoking!

7 comments:

Laura Duce said...

AMEN! I wish I were more like you because I hate confronting people about smoking since I feel rude but they're the ones being rude. My neighbors are renting their place and the husband smokes so I am constantly shutting my windows and screen door when he's out smoking, he doesn't work so it's an all day thing. It stinks up my entire house and really bothers me. I too can't stand the litter and it always seems to makes its way into my flowers so I get to clean it all up.

Jinii said...

I totally agree. The smoking thing kills me. I had heard Obama smoked when he was running but was trying to quit. I guess that makes it better right. Sorry I do not have too many good things to say on the smoking or President issues so I just won't say anything at all.

Miss Megan said...

I am so tired of all of the cigarette butts lining the sidewalks in my condo complex. I'm considering suggesting that my HOA constitute a new rule for ALL smokers in the complex that they ALL have to pay an additional $.05 for EACH cigarette butt found on the property. If it doesn't deter the smoking, it might discourage the littering. SO RUDE!!

Rosie Boren said...

The worst is when a group of people who are smoking come and put their blanket next to a pregnant lady. When she was in the park first. so gross. And saying the name Obama makes my blood pressure rise for sure. I don't talk about him much.

marian said...

Littering makes me think of all the plastic bags all over in Honduras and Belize. . .sad.

As for Mr. President, also very sad, sad, sad, and a VERY bad example!

Ryan and Renee said...

I knew he smoked during the election. Ryan heard it on the radio so I googled it and found pictures of him smoking. It's totally gross. They did a study and found that people are less likely to vote for a person if they smoke, even if they agree with the person. So, the Obama people did a really good job hiding it.

Callie said...

I don't mind you getting on your soap box; all I can say is ditto! You hit two things that I'm extremely opinionated about too! Smoking=disgusting and littering=annoying. Both are annoying and inconsiderate.