If You’re Going to Enjoy Maine’s State Parks, Don’t be Disgusting

Dear Disgusting Humans of Earth,

I apologize for the harsh tone but after seeing this photo on Facebook, shared by Amanda Greco, I'm simply baffled by your complete lack of common sense and courtesy.

Were you raised in a barn? If so, I'm sorry. Truly! That must not have been easy. But clearly you're out of the barn and visiting Maine state parks so please, allow this to be a learning moment.

Typically, when you visit a park, or venture to the outdoors in any capacity, whatever trash you bring outside, you take care of appropriately.

This means putting the items in trash bags and placing those items in trash bins/cans/dumpsters. Bonus points for recycling/composting!

You see, in this specific example, this is Sebago Lake State Park. Folks pay a few bucks to get in and enjoy hiking, boating, camping, or lunch with the family at one of the picnic tables you decided to completely cover with your trash.

I am curious though, who did you think was responsible for cleaning that up? Not you, obviously. Park staff? The next guest that just wanted to eat their ham and cheese?

Not only are you being a (insert choice words here) to humans, you're also a danger to animals because, if you didn't notice, you're in nature where animals abound. While Jerry the raccoon would be THRILLED to have such a spread it wouldn't be good for him. Plus, what if he or one of his forest buddies got caught in one of the bags or cut themselves on a can?

After downing a bunch of Oreos, Coke, and Kool-Aid, one would think you'd surely be amped enough to clean up. I'll say this, it does look like you bagged SOME of your trash. You just didn't complete the important task of removing the bags from the site. Perhaps you had a sugar crash and it took every ounce of ambition, motivation, and energy just to crawl back to your car and return to home/barn. Still, no excuse. Plan ahead. Be better.

So, now you know. No claiming ignorance. Do this again and you get promoted from being a jerk to being certifiably terrible.

Happy picnic-ing!

-B