A person injecting right there on the sidewalk
They put up umbrellas to be less obvious in one sense since you can’t see they syringe as easily, but more obvious if you know the reason for the umbrella.
I post about addicts because I only see quantitative, not qualitative, difference between this behavior and McDonald’s, Starbucks, or other behavior that people can’t stop despite it harming others. If we drive when we can walk or bike, or use disposable diapers, or fly for vacations, we’re hurting people for our comfort and convenience. Our behavior may be legal, but it doesn’t change that we’re hurting more people by polluting and depleting, getting less pleasure, and no less addicted. They’re mostly hurting themselves. We’re mostly hurting others.
Another day, I went to pick up the bag below as part of my picking-up-litter sidcha—what could be reusable but looks like it was used once, likely by someone who could have reused it for years—and saw this syringe sticking out of it.
We live in an addictive culture. I wonder who was more addicted and hurting more other people: the syringe user or the person who didn’t bring their own bag so accepted a new one and then littered it.
I don’t know the story behind the cup.
Read my weekly newsletter
On initiative, leadership, the environment, and burpees