BEST Proud to be an American EVER

Every once in a while, those of who live here in DC decide to abandon all of the political bull hooey that is life inside the Beltway and just fess up to the fact that we generally like our country. I attempted to reconnect with America (and put aside all of my grievances against the good ole U.S of A) by participating in Take Pride in America. Aside from being an excuse to sit in an office on a workday, Take Pride in America is the charity of our National Parks Service. Through the summer months, volunteers all across the country clean up and perform general maintenance on national parks.

As a frequent user of our national parks, I think that this is a good idea. Ordinary citizens pitching in and helping make the country a nicer place without looking for personal or political, something that is sometimes rare in this day and age.

Having said this however, I do have a bit of issue with the work that I actually performed. Emmmm and I decided to go free form and not be constrained by our assigned projects. There were several reasons for this, namely it was about 100 degrees and we were attempting to find a project which would not give us heat stroke. The first project was weeding, which was insect intensive and you were crouched over in the sun. The second project we went to was trash pickup, which was down by the river, therefore a cool breeze was blowing. Based on the contents of the trash I picked up however, I’m not sure if I would ever frequent the park we were at. Finds included used syringes, straws, small plastic bags, empty beer bottles, etc. It was basically all of the paraphernalia you would need if you were giving a speech to an 8th grade class about drug and alcohol abuse.

After the majority of the trash that wouldn’t give me hepatitis was picked up, I moved onto “tree removal”. That’s right, the national park service was having us remove trees to make way for a seawalk, which will look over to the new baseball stadium in DC, once constructed. So, as I am hauling branches up the Anacostia River bank, I can’t help but thing of the horrible horrible irony of the fact that while I started this day to reconnect with America, I was ending it by assisting others chop down trees for a park used primarily by herion addicts.

This of course, could not be the true ending to the day. After a few minutes of tree removal, I moved onto my final activity of the day, which incidentally ended up being my true calling….mulching.