The grass is cool against my feet. A warm breeze whispersthrough the trees, and rose bushes greet me in the distance.Evening’s settling in, the campus has been deserted andI’m left alone to enjoy Sacramento State in all itssplendor.

Then, as I’m reveling in my solitude, something screams upat me and breaks the silence. It’s your trash!

That’s right, it’s yours, because I sure as helldidn’t put it there. Your soda can, your chip bag, youryogurt container &- sharply out of place amid the blades ofgrass. And with those dirty little eyes, your trash stares up at meand asks how you could just leave it there.

So I pick up your garbage, and on my way to the trash can Inotice a water bottle. I pick it up, as well. And for a moment Ifeel good about myself, like I’ve helped out or made adifference or something. But then I notice the cigarette butts.Disgusting. I notice the candy wrappers rolling by like tumbleweeds. Scattered along the sidewalk, the event fliers thatI’ve learned to ignore suddenly jump out at me. And I realizethat I just can’t pick up all your garbage.

My effort seems pathetic now, and walking to class I feeldeflated and wonder why I bother. What’s the point when myattempt doesn’t make a dent in the larger problem, part ofwhich is that you’re supposed to be an educated individualbut you can’t figure out how to dispose of your broken crackpipe, or your empty 40 oz. beer bottle or whatever it is that you”too-cool” litterers should be throwing away.

The real problem is that so many people just don’t care.One person making an effort pales in comparison to the hundreds whodo nothing. It’s so easy to sit back and be apathetic andcynical, I know &- no one questions cynicism. Things aref***ed up: the environment, the government, the economy. Nobodywill argue with you. Putting effort toward a cause is puttingyourself out there with the risk that no one will be behindyou.

But deep down people want to care about something and they wantto do something about it. Constantly complaining gets old fast.

So what’s the solution? Giving money to a homeless persondoesn’t take him off the street. Donating 10 cents a day toSally Struthers doesn’t eliminate child hunger. Voting for aGreen Party presidential candidate won’t put them intooffice. And picking up one piece of trash doesn’t clean upthe campus.

But if it doesn’t make a difference when one piece oftrash is picked up, then it wouldn’t make a difference if onepiece is thrown down either, and that’s just not true.

The same way I feel about trash, many students feel aboutvoting. They say over and over, “Millions of people inAmerica have the opportunity to vote, so my one vote doesn’tmake a difference.” But if your vote doesn’t make thedifference, then whose vote does? Sure it’s all about themasses and you need strength in numbers to make change, but thosenumbers have to start with one, right?

Politicians don’t represent the interests of young adultsbecause we don’t make them &- they know we don’tvote, so we can’t vote them in or out of office. So we getstuck with a Bush or a Kerry or some other soulless politician whowill never make the drastic changes that America and societydesperately need.

If you vote, your friends are more likely to vote. I pick uptrash, and the few people wandering behind me saw it, thought aboutit and maybe next time they’ll pick up trash, too. Ifeveryone cares about something, anything, and does something aboutit, change will happen. It’ll be slow. It’ll bedifficult. But it’ll be worth it.