Let's Keep America Beautiful by Chris White

Several nights ago I was conversing with a young person about his recent trip to Africa.  Like most Americans who travel overseas, they are often shocked by the amount of litter that seems to be everywhere and my friend was no exception.  I explained to him that when I was growing up (during the 1960’s and 1970’s) we had a litter problem that was just about as bad as any place I have ever visited outside the U.S. but we had something that put an end to it: The Keep America Beautiful Campaign.  Night after night, as we sat in the glow of the family television set (only wealthy people had more than one set in their homes) we would see a public service announcement featuring an American Indian from the past paddling his traditional canoe into a present day modern and industrialized but unnamed metropolis.  Everywhere he goes, this man who deeply loves and respects nature, encounters careless and thoughtless people throwing their trash out the window.  The announcement closes with a motorist dumping the remains of his drive-thru hamburger meal right at the feet of this native man and looking directly at the camera we see there is a tear running down his cheek and then we hear the voice-over  admonition that caring for our great land begins and ends with you(if you want to watch the video for nostalgia/or/informational purposes go here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=j7OHG7tHrNM

My young friend was quite surprised about this and asked me if I really believe that one public service announcement had that much power to change the face of America?  “Absolutely”, I told him, “to this very day whenever I throw my hamburger trash out the window, I’m haunted by a vague sense of guilt and the face of an Indian man who is being a big cry-baby about some litter that by the end of the week is going to blow into the next county or will be eaten by a bunch of wild possums.  Never underestimate the power of a good public service announcement.