You remind me of the old saying, you can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl.

I wholeheartedly agree with you, "humanity is in a proper mess." However, I am equally convinced the solutions are in rural America - not our cities.

Rural Americans have been coping with urban waste, urban refugees, and urban crime for a century now. Cities produce massive amounts of waste, and export it all, to rural communities. Cities breed violence and despair, then send their criminals to rural prisons. People fleeing the cities, settle in rural housing developments (that pollute our land). City refugees brought their televangelist-bred, mega-church culture with them to rural America. And now, urban Americans blame rural Americans for the corruption of Christianity as well.

I can't leave without offering a hint at solutions. American cities are butt ugly. Sure, there are some nice parts, here and there, but as whole, American cities are as rank and dirty as pigsties and just as dangerous and unhealthy too. Put people in pigsties and they will start to act like pigs. But these are human beings, not pigs and I object to their living conditions.

I think it time city dwellers started minding their own business and cleaned their own house. They need to pick up the trash on their streets, freeways and empty lots. Tear down those empty, abandoned buildings, and restore the dirt to clean garden soil. Get to work repairing, refurbishing, and polishing everything they've built, especially rental housing. And when that work is done...

it will be time for beautification. Stop talking about recycling and start doing it. Use waste materials - including old wind turbines - to build parks, public spaces, gardens, walkways, etc. Put a fresh coat of paint on buildings. Get rid of all that hideous advertising (my word, that stuff is so ugly, its a visual assault). Etc. and so on, and on, and on.

If city residents ever did clean their own cities, they would keep them clean. At least that's my theory.

Thanks for the note, it was nice to read while sipping my morning coffee.