A utopia without plastic bags?!
Over two weeks ago I began writing about the recent plastic bag ban in Silver City, New Mexico. It’s a common topic at Chamber of Commerce luncheons and provides a thread of common interest to discuss at local grocery stores and Walmart for frequent shoppers.
As I have written in the past, grocery store owners predict that the ban will cost them tens of thousands of dollars each year. The environmentalists don’t care about or mind the negative economic effects of the ban nor are they bothered by the work, red tape and expenses it creates for local businesses.
Unsustainable “utopia” fumbles
In Silver City, the unicorn followers and dreamers who envision a utopia have made it hard on the everyday people who couldn’t care less about their little fights, but have to live by the rules the liberals create anyway!
The word at Walmart was that they ran out of thick plastic bags because locals were actually “stealing” them by grabbing an extra few bags to stock up on before the stores run out. I asked about this at another grocery store and the cashier confirmed that they’d had people stealing the thick plastic bags at their store– to the point that a manager was notified and caught a shopper loading a huge stack of them in his truck.
Sources described the scene of a wild Walmart after thick plastic bags (that have been okay’d by the city) began to run out Monday mayhem ensued. By Tuesday, Walmart was out of the thick plastic bags and were selling out of the “reusable” bags they sell. One Walmart cashier explained that shoppers were angry and she was yelled at all of Tuesday during her shift after the thick plastic bags ran out. Many customers just filled their carts with their groceries and didn’t buy or reuse any bags at all. Then the reusable bags sold completely out.
Political Fireball 
These busy-body environmentalists lack the courage, patience or perseverance to live the rural lifestyles some of them dream of. Even if they cared to live rural lifestyles, many could not keep up with those farmers who woke before dawn to tend farms 16 hours a day, only to lose their multi-generational family farm to the bank.
Rather than try to rebuild rural lifestyles, many of these enviros would rather spend their time driving their SUV to a newly designated Wilderness Area where they can roll around on their $2,500 “Mountain” bike, then taking another road trip to Washington DC or the state capital where they can try to shame people into complying with their latest pet peeve.
Many environmentalists don’t even care for a rural lifestyle, but would rather see humans herded into cities where every move is managed by elite college-educated urban planners. They go to school for degrees then imagine a world run by people like themselves, and call that diversity.
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This trail runner has already seen a “heavy bag” in the wild…unless they’re made of lead, these bags will be driven by the New Mexico zephyrs to the same places the lighter ones were. Bags get away by accident, it’s true, but I suspect the problem (which our left-ish neighbors fail to see) is not the bags, but the attitude of people who have no problem dropping their trash wherever they see fit. If the proponents of this ordinance thought the old bags were a problem for the environment and an ugly thing to see strewn across our landscape, just wait – those heavy bags will take much longer to break down, and we’ll be staring at them a lot longer. It’s a heart problem. While trying to maintain our beautiful Southwest (something I do not oppose), they miss the point – trashers are going to trash, whatever ammunition you force them to use. The increased regulation of the left doesn’t teach respect for our neighbor’s property (or our collectively-owned property). Cleaning up after ourselves and respect for others’ property (or collectively-owned property) is something that should be taught to little children. Burdensome regulation that hurts business and consumers cannot replace that early training. Writing a new law can never replace the role of a family’s responsibility in child-rearing in a society. You can’t decree respect for others and creation.
Such were my musings on the trail after seeing that first (and far from last – spring is coming!) heavy bag on the trail.
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