So Fresh and So Green

Hello my name is Silent Jay. I’m a fellow blogger and friend of Madam Toussaint and she’s been gracious enough to allow me to do a special guest post on her site. I have list of 5 things that we can all do not only improve the environment but I also believe will improve our communities.

Here’s the good news, none of these things require you attend a meeting, a seminar, or a forum. They’re just things we can all do everyday.

Community Clean Up
I use to live in a neighborhood where it was obvious just how little some of the people cared about their neighborhood. Broken glass, soda cans and empty snack chip bags always seemed be littered all over the streets.

We need to clean up our own communities by dumping our trash properly and not just rely on road crews or juvenile delinquents doing volunteer work (wink wink). Doing this is not only good for the environment but its good for us as and it can show just how much we care about neighborhoods and ourselves.

Read more
Reading more books is not only good for expanding your mind and vocabulary but good for the environment. Think about it; reading more books means watching less television watching which leads to higher test scores for our children.

It also leads to less electricity being drawn from power plants. It also means not having you and your children being bombarded by fast food ads and commercials for shallow material items that encourage us to spend more and save less.

Slow down on the Fast Food

While we’re kind of on the subject of food; Madam Toussaint asked what I thought was killing us and I said four things. Those things are: self loathing, complacency, neglect and fast foods. Our arteries clog and our waist lines expand while used plastic straws, paper cups and greasy bags pile up in landfills.

We should take Ms. Obama’s idea and start our own community gardens where we can grow and share healthier foods for our communities. Okay I admit this one might require a meeting to decide where to plan the garden but only one.

Recycle

This one is related to my first one. You know that 40oz you just drank in memory of your deceased homeys. Do your live homeys a favor and recycle those bottles and cans. It means less broken bottles on the streets where we live and our kids play.

Bring down the noise pollution

Lower the boom on your booming system. Yeah, I got loud sound system too but I lower my sound when I’m driving through a neighborhood with schools and hospitals nearby. Some of you have really loud sound systems that are disturbing our golden citizens and blasting profane lyrics in ear shot children who don’t need to hear that stuff. Roll up your windows and turn the music down a few notches.

I believe that if we all to these things together and individually it will have positive Rube Goldberg effect (that thing that made Pee Wee’s breakfast) on the environment and just as importantly the Black community. And as usual I’m out of here.

About the Author: Silent Jay is a blogger at silentjaysblog.blogspot.com which he has maintained since August 2009. He has addressed a variety topics on his blog athletes who screw up to his “Defending Tyler Perry” series which was my personal favorite . You can also find him on Twitter at @TheBrownHornet