Smokers: Respect environment

One day, I took my year-old daughter for a walk. About a third of the way through my 20-minute walk, I decided to count the cigarette butts that I saw. I counted 57, or roughly one every 15 seconds.

The next day, I walked in the opposite direction, to downtown. I walked for 15 minutes and counted 117 cigarette butts, roughly one every eight seconds.

Now, I don't mind you smoking. Kill yourself for all I care; you just might be the answer to saving Social Security. But is it that hard to find a trash can?

Downtown Turlock has them on every street corner. You obviously don't care about yourself enough to stop smoking, but could you please have some respect for the environment?

I did see two gum wrappers, one Lego and, oddly enough, a half-eaten bowl of cereal, no joke.

GARY VESSEL

Turlock