I just read Dan Rodricks' comments written about our "trashy" communities ("We need to get back to the message on trash" May 17) and my immediate reaction was "Amen and Amen."

I am continually amazed and disheartened with the behavior of people who, through their careless actions, are not fazed by the results of those actions.

Is it stupidity, an "all-about-me" attitude, or simple unawareness?

A campaign against this behavior is called for because the problem is growing exponentially. I know from experience, having "adopted" a road in rural Baltimore County for the last 10 years, that no landscape, city or otherwise, is spared of this ugliness.

This is not just about love for our environment. It is a call for people to look beyond themselves and to start caring, really caring, about other people and the natural world around us.

Ellen Clayton, Phoenix