Precisely what I'm talking about.

This is a local neighbourhood's common area. (It's not in Stoney Creek, but across Centennial in Hamilton.)

It's been in this state, more or less for as long as I can remember. More than two years.

It's not in some 'far removed' part of the community. There's tons of foot-traffic going by every day. And yet it's -seemingly- never been cleaned up.

Because...?

Because nobody cares.

Because nobody feels compelled to look after this communal patch. Nobody seems to feel any amount of self-respect, of pride to motivate them to grab a garbage bag, take ten minutes and clean it all up. And setting an example, maybe prevent others from effectively crapping in the open.

So if the way in which we view our world can be seen in this common example of modern behaviour, why should we expect that things in general ought to be any better?

Specifically, if we don't feel that our lives deserve the respect of a clean environment, why should we expect that our best interests are being looked after by those we put in office? Why should we feel we deserve that?

Of course, I've dealt with this notion of 'the relationship of engagement' with our elected officials, about creating a new way of seeing our roles in society, about the need to produce a value system shift towards a far more involved, engaging citizenry, here, in this series of articles.

I'm just sayin'...