My fellow citizen, my neighbor, my friend--I love you! I realize our city has taken away your ability to smoke in bars and in restaurants and now you must go outside. Rain or shine you smoke, crowding doorways and awnings, and some of you even do it riding up the metro escalator.
Perhaps you don't realize what a big whiff of smoke smells like to the non-smoker, maybe you don't care? Most of you are polite not to smoke near my young son, but others are oblivious. I find the smell of smoke mostly annoying, but don't get upset because it soon fades away. While the smoke doesn't stay behind, your butts do.
It's your butts that I am angry about. Go, and take a look around the Dupont Circle fountain and you will know exactly what I mean. The whole perimeter of the fountain has been littered by butts. Don't you know that it is littering when you throw your butts on the ground? If I wouldn't have been in the circle with my son, this never would've come up. I've turned a blind eye for many years, but now your butts are affecting my kid.
I spent the better part of an hour today chasing my son around the fountain. Every few minutes he would bend down and pick up a butt. Disgusting, right? This is the first time that he's ever encountered butts on the ground, so immediately he wants to put them in his mouth. Yuck! You know how kids like to explore by putting things in their mouths? Don't you see that it is disgusting enough that he picks it up, but even more so that he puts what has been in your mouth in his?
So, please, dispose of your butts properly. They are not meant to be flicked on the pavement, in flower boxes, or in my front yard. Don't do it for me, or my kid, do it for yourself. Tell all of your friends too. If you need to be convinced to pick up your butts, check out cigarettelitter.org.
Sincerely,
U Street Mom
Amen, sister!
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