Over Thanksgiving my wife and I went to her mother’s house in Topeka, KS. Out of Goodman, MO, we went north on Hwy 71, west on I-44, over to Kansas on Hwy 400, and north on Hwy 75.

The first and foremost thought on our minds was making the four hour trek as quickly as possible. What did we see? We saw large fields of tall, uncut, and ungrazed grass. We saw fields that had been harvested but still had the stubble in them to reduce erosion. We drove on two lane roads that were in better condition than Missouri’s new four lane roads.

The best part of whole trip was that we only saw approximately 10-15 % of the litter on roadsides in Kansas as compared to Missouri’s litter- strewn roadsides. How can there be such a disparity between neighboring states? Are the citizens in our state so indifferent to their environment, the health of our roadsides, and to the streams that eventually receive this trash?

I urge everyone to stop throwing things out of their windows, restrain the trash that is found in so many pickup beds, and stop once in while and pick up some of this crap on the roads. Oh, maybe MODOT could have their people pick up trash when they stop for lunch or breaks. We need to take care and respect what we have and stop being so lazy with our trash and our lives.

Comments by Dwayne Miller
Goodman, MO

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