Hi Michael. Thank you for writing this excellent, thoughtful piece.

I agree with you about the trash issue. It is also beyond my comprehension . Recently I was in a facility where every trash can was removed. Reason?

People put trash in them and it was deemed by operations too much work to empty the cans. Really. Of course you know what happened next. People just threw their trash anywhere.

That facility should have been thankful that their customers actually respected the trash cans before management removed them. Your article certainly points that out, given all the trash scattered around the receptacles rather than in them.

Re the name calling. Karen in particular. Again I agree with you about name calling immaturity. And total inappropriateness.

My view, my opinion: In the past few years an significant influencer gave permission to the population to express all kinds of inappropriate behaviour. Hate, misogyny, greed, racism etc etc. I am not saying he created it. I understand these things already existed.

However this guy gave permission to say it. To broadcast it. He leads by example. So we end up with Karen and all kinds of other stuff.

Karen now has evolved into a way to silence women. So it was tacky juvenile behaviour initially. Now it is just plain damaging.

Michael, you asked for input so I am providing how I feel about all this. I think from your article, we might agree on all that I write in response, but if not, I am happy for us to feel free to express our own answers to the trash and the Karen issue. I am a big believer in discussion and learning.

BTW. Congrats on the curation. We are both fortunate to have the curators recognize our Illumination articles in early August.