Pay more attention to the images we see

It seems like we have been held captive in the icy grip of winter forever. Spring has finally sprung, and as the mountainous piles of ice and snow recede we are left with the remnants of our winter season -- garbage.

I have been shocked as I drive around the city to see just how much litter is strewn in ditch and sidewalk. Trinity is the worst I have seen so far, but every intersection, every chain link fence, and every culvert seems plugged with paper and plastic.

I have lived in a surprising number of places -- and most of them have been above and beyond the average level in terms of natural beauty -- the Eastern Townships of Quebec, the edges of Calgary, The Queen Charlotte Islands 18 miles off the coast of Alaska all come to mind. I have also spent significant time in Indiana with its amber waves of grain, the parks and waterways of Florida with mangrove trees and alligators, and even the Caribbean beaches of Guadeloupe and Dominica. No matter where I have lived and travelled, New Brunswick compares favourably; with our forests and fields, rivers and beaches, waterfalls and marshes -- and yet, there is more litter strewn on the side of our roads than anywhere else I have been.

I live on the side of a major road and every day from now until Christmas I will have to go out to my front lawn and pick up coffee cups and chip bags. I truly do not understand what causes so many of us to think it is okay to throw things out the window as we drive.

It certainly doesn't make things look any better -- that is my point. I also bet that there are not too many people out there who would throw their trash off the deck into their own yard. So why are we okay with doing it in public spaces?

And it is not just driving; take a walk on any of our trails and you come across the same thing -- sometimes worse.

Last summer my family and I drove from here to Indiana through an incredible number of U.S. States. More than one of them had signs along the road suggesting harsh fines for littering. I seem to recall that New York State was $10,000. That would make an incredible incentive to keep the A&W bag on the floor until next you drove by a bin, would it not? It might also allow us a municipal budget to redo all our roads in concrete, or flex steel, or whatever it would take to make sure we stop littering bolts from our tire assemblies as we drive through the gaping holes winter has so graciously provided us with.

But why do we need the negative incentive? Will we only choose to do the right thing if there is some punishment involved in doing the wrong? It suggests a sad state of moral development on our parts, but alas, I fear it is true; and so if I was running for mayor my platform would be $10,000 fines for littering, and most likely also for other social crimes like cutting people off, or scowling while making change.

Which reminds me, and I realize this is a huge tangent but I really cannot wait until next week to make this observation, I love the subliminal advertising in our municipal election. This is nothing against any candidate or any campaign manager, it is just a chuckle I get while driving around and I would like to share it with you.

There has been debate for years about how effective subliminal ads are. Recently Dr. Bahador Bahrami of the University of London published a study showing that it did have an impact on decision making. Now -- subliminal or not -- advertisers of any product, including a political candidate, want you to be subconsciously in favour of who they are on a level so deep that it hardly registers consciously; it is just a reflex; for example you feel thirsty and you instantly, without even recognizing it, think: Coca Cola.

Barak Obama says the word "Change" so many times, with a different inflection from the other words he speaks; every poster says "Change" in big letters; the backdrop as he appears in ads and interviews also plasters "change" larger than life across its surface. Does anyone know what he is changing? Does it matter? No, they are just hoping that when you think Barak Obama, you will think, "Change" and since none of us ever like the present all that much, we will vote for something different.

But back to Moncton; just about every election sign on the side of the road includes all the info you need to make a snap decision -- picture, name, ward, slogan and position interested in. . . They do not include anything that would need higher brain function to decide, such as platform items or record of past service. Again, I am not intending to belittle any of this -- it is necessary for the election process, it is just curious.

As we drive around we are meant to make a decision as to who to vote on based on the bright sign colours, the catchy slogan, or perhaps the attractiveness of the candidate.

Here is the subliminal part -- almost every sign also includes a little box with a check in it very closely positioned to the name. If you see that image enough times, you will automatically associate the name with a check mark in the box, and when it comes time to vote. . .

Perhaps we need to pay more attention to the reason behind the images we encounter -- because they have a lot of power, which brings me full circle.

What image does garbage on the side of the road project?