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FrodosPet

(5,169 posts)
Tue May 27, 2014, 01:56 PM May 2014

How can I respectfully stop a pagan from littering?

I have a dear pagan friend who professes to love the Earth and hate the big polluting corporations.

But she is a smoker who thinks nothing of throwing cigarette butts, cellophane, even food wrappers out the window of a moving car, excusing it by saying everybody does it and it helps create litter cleaning jobs.

I am doing my best to be as non-patriarchal as I can be. I desperately try not to either tell women what to do, or to even make any kind of suggestion lest it be perceived as telling someone what to do.

But still, littering bothers me. Should I say something any stronger than I already have, or should I just accept that saying something, no matter how benevolent I think it may be, would only be met with negativity?

7 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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How can I respectfully stop a pagan from littering? (Original Post) FrodosPet May 2014 OP
Throwing cigarette butts is illegal because it's a fire hazard rocktivity May 2014 #1
I completely agree. That's why it bothers me FrodosPet May 2014 #2
I am a female pagan LiberalEsto May 2014 #3
Great advice. icymist May 2014 #5
I think you should approach her. Ilsa May 2014 #4
So, your pagan sister is a problem! icymist May 2014 #6
Ask her if she would dump her trash in the middle of somebody else's living room for them to pick up magical thyme May 2014 #7

rocktivity

(44,883 posts)
1. Throwing cigarette butts is illegal because it's a fire hazard
Tue May 27, 2014, 02:05 PM
May 2014

Last edited Mon Feb 15, 2021, 01:56 PM - Edit history (2)

And animals can eat the food wrappers. If a cop is watching, you could get pulled over and ticketed (or worse, if the cop mistakes the cigarette butt for a marijuana roach).


rocktivity

FrodosPet

(5,169 posts)
2. I completely agree. That's why it bothers me
Tue May 27, 2014, 02:16 PM
May 2014

But I am the old and paranoid "big brother".

In her philosophy, bad things only happen when you talk or think about them happening. A positive energy field, free from negativity and worry, is all that is required to ward off undesirable events.

 

LiberalEsto

(22,845 posts)
3. I am a female pagan
Tue May 27, 2014, 03:03 PM
May 2014

There is nothing patriarchal about expressing your opinion that littering is wrong.

Anyone who truly loves Mother Earth shows respect by refraining from dumping litter anywhere except in appropriate receptacles. In a car, a lit cigarette butt should be extinguished in the ashtray, not tossed out where it could land in another person's vehicle and cause injury, or start a deadly forest fire.

It sounds to me like this person fails to respect her own body by smoking cigarettes. If she can't respect her own body and health, let alone the health of people nearby, how can she respect Mother Earth?


Methinks your friend needs to grow up and stop thinking the world is her ashtray.

Ilsa

(62,231 posts)
4. I think you should approach her.
Wed May 28, 2014, 09:55 PM
May 2014

Everybody doesn't do it, and picking up litter is not a productive use of taxpayer funds. She should respect others' space on Mother Earth by cleaning up after herself.

icymist

(15,888 posts)
6. So, your pagan sister is a problem!
Thu May 29, 2014, 04:46 AM
May 2014

What is her pagan affiliation? What is her practice? I didn't get that from the OP. Is she Caos? Or another that has no use for the Earth? Why is she so eager to pollute (Gaia) herself? Is she even mature?

 

magical thyme

(14,881 posts)
7. Ask her if she would dump her trash in the middle of somebody else's living room for them to pick up
Thu May 29, 2014, 06:59 AM
May 2014

or dump her butts in somebody else's yard to start a fire? After all, that gives the fire dept. jobs. And every place is somebody's home and she is dumping her trash in their homes and endangering their lives.

An acquaintance rescued a pregnant BLM mare and was headed home with her when the trailer she was pulling started bouncing and swaying. Looking in the rear view mirror, she could see flames shooting out of the trailer.

She was able to pull over safely, and got the mare out of the fire as quickly as she could. She spent several hours late at night holding that poor, suffering horse by the side of the highway, waiting for a vet to arrive. The mare could not be saved and had to be put down.

Per the police, apparently some (insert perjorative here) had tossed a butt out the window while passing her trailer. It was sucked into the trailer and started the hay or bedding on fire and burned that poor mare alive.

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