Recently, the Clear Focus affinity floor at Lycoming College did the dirty deed of picking up all the cigarettes around campus. The following day, an email was released by Student Programs, titled, “'$1000 Found in the Ground!' (Respond Accordingly).” The email contained a written segment that broke down what the students did, claiming that—based on the average cost of cigarettes in Pennsylvania—around $1,000 worth of butts were picked off the ground. The very end of the email posed a question: “Does this make Lyco look pretty?”
As the great Butt Purge was going down, my roommate and I went for a cigarette and almost walked out on a girl picking up butts in front of our building. Thanks to a sharp mind and the fliers put up around campus about the event, we realized what she was doing and decided to go out back for our smoke and have a good laugh at our near misfortune—how horrible would it have been if we hadn’t realized in time? We certainly would have looked like jerks, and dear us, the tragedy of that.
Twenty or so minutes later we left our room to go to a friend’s, and when we got outside, the poor girl had just finished. Standing next to her was our good friend, also a member of the Clear Focus floor, with rubber gloves in hand. It dawned on me that my friend did the deed as well. I was ashamed. I couldn’t look the poor guy in the eye. We bro-shook and laughed about it like my friend didn’t just pick up my butts. The trauma was strong. I spent the rest of the day thinking about how, as much as I do try to get rid of my cigarettes responsibly, I was still part of the reason my friend and this girl butt-picked for hours—a cruel fate brought rudely on by what is nothing more than childish behavior.
You see, there’s our problem; we have every right to continue smoking—our body, our rights—but I can't conclude in any logical manner that our behavior is excusable. If it’s not because I’m dumb, it’s because we know what we’re doing, and that is nothing more than childish.
Frankly, the mere act of smoking is bothersome for all parties involved, but when you account for the fact that we’ve all seen the anti-smoking ads, we’ve all seen pictures and representations of what it can do to our health, we’ve read the statistics, we’ve heard the testimonials—I personally have a pack of Vietnamese cigarettes on my desk that features a picture of a throat cancer patient’s wound—we all know, so why are we letting our friends and peers do a disgusting job cleaning after us? Obviously, from the 3,000 butts found on the ground, someone had to do it, but why did we let it get to that point?
Well, mostly because we’re lazy—childish behavior No. 1. The desire to walk a few feet and half-ass throw a cigarette in a concrete bowl isn’t very strong, and when you miss—who has time to walk another foot and bend over? Well, who aside from the Clear Focus floor?
Also, we don’t want to admit guilt— childish behavior No. 2. Nobody wants to look like a jackass for obvious poor behavior they should be conscious of. It’s college; we already hate ourselves enough without acknowledging we’re doing something discourteous and harmful.
For us to take responsibility—No. 3—and pick up our trash and stay away from buildings—simply forget it, we only have a few short years until we stop being excused for irresponsible behavior, hell if we won’t take advantage of that. Furthermore that’d be work. Who does work? Adults. They do it.
We don’t care though, obviously—No. 4. With millennial smokers it’s almost as if our aggressively indifferent inner hipsters just won’t die like they should. I mean, really, who cares if we’re disturbing others by polluting their airspace with gaseous chemicals that also contribute to atmospheric pollution? Who cares we’re destroying the aesthetic of a particularly beautiful campus and adding damage to its soil. If we cared, we’d have to stop doing the above three, and that would imply the terrifying, difficult task of growing up a little. We'd also lose that indifferent edge that makes us look like we're too cool to fully include ourselves in society.
I will note, though, through my own nagging and the impact of the email, my friends have been very conscious of their butts. However, this does not nullify the problem. No grand advent has taken place—we just feel foolish because the Clear Focus affinity (very effectively) gut-punched us via a school-wide email. Though the Butt Purges effects can be felt strongly in the smoking community at this time, it will wear out, and thus another will take place, and if something more is not done, Purge after Purge will crash at the feet of smokers until smoking is no more—which will take a lot of butt-picking and time.
See, although I fully commend the Clear Focus floor for their hard work, concern, and finely displayed writing skills, when you martyr your members by submitting them to plainly gross labor to give yourselves material for a piece of literature, well, someone’s bound to notice that it’s a pretty passive-aggressive move. Once the passive aggressiveness is noticed, we start wondering: If you’re concerned enough to spend time and energy picking up cigarette butts, then use what you did to send a message, why would you not seek a solution yourself? Say, perhaps, by proposing an idea to those members of the college responsible for policies, who may or may not be linked to a group of students that meet weekly to enable all students to have a say in the operation of their academic institution.
That presents another problem: What could they actually do other than what they have? Be revolutionaries and start a radical policy that treats littering as a crime? That would imply that Lycoming College doesn't have any policy in place that punishes those who litter cigarette butts, which isn't true. If you look at their tobacco policy, it can be plainly seen that there are, in fact, repercussions for littering cigarette butts. Literally none of the student smokers I've talked to are aware of the fine's existence, leading me to believe that it may not be so heavily enforced. So, it seems not only do the smokers not care, but the college itself might not either. Maybe the email should have been directed at the administration to remind them of their own policy. I think to have a more beautiful campus with less litter might require action not only by students, but by the college itself. That's just speculation, though.
