So I was walking home yesterday. And I was at the corner of Irving and Jackson. At the stoplight there was a car with a couple of young men inside. It had out of state license plates. I watched the one on the passenger side try to subtly drop some trash out onto the curb. I was standing right there as he did it.

I wrote down the license plate number of this car, as I talked to Lorch on the phone. I asked him for his opinion, if I could call the cops or something, because frankly, I was more appalled that this had been done in plain sight of another human being than anything else.

Who does something like that? I’ll tell you who. Goddamned savages.

These are the same people that walk into my office or others on campus rudely chatting on their phones while trying to conduct business at the reception desk at the same time. They’re the same ones that let their kids do what the hell they want, whereever they are, without any consideration of how to behave in a civilized society.

I really just can’t believe at times that I turned out the way I did, while at the same time, there are all these savages sharing the streets.

I didn’t call anyone about the littering, because, as Lorch and I discussed, what the hell would a cop do about littering? I didn’t say anything to the young men in the car, mostly because they looked to me like fellows that could kick my ass. A little garbage is probably not worth a trip to the emergency room, but as I think back, I probably could have just picked the garbage up and thrown it out at home.

What I should probably do, beyond lamenting the existence of the savages, is to find some way to tame them– I should focus on what human knowledge and civility I can pass on to their ape-like kind.

To begin, let me share three simple rules for beginning to not be a savage:
1. Have some respect for yourself and the other humans around you
2. Don’t say or do things to others that, if done to you, would make you upset, angry, or otherwise put-off
3. Have respect for the world at large, thinking of it not so much as something that belongs to you, but something that belongs to a person that you care deeply for