‘Going green’ shouldn’t be blue

I’m a back row judger.

No, that’s not a volleyball term. It’s a made up term I created to describe how I entertain myself in class.

I participate pretty often and don’t fall asleep in class. I’ve got good eyes, so I can afford to stay back.

But, most importantly, sitting in the back allows me to hear and see everything that goes on during the 75-minute lecture.

As a political science major, you can learn a lot about a person from what they say in class. Whenever a debate springs up, I sit up a little straighter and start playing the “which-party-do-they-belong-to?” game in my head.

Stupid? Maybe. But it’s irresistible.

As poly-sci majors, there’s always that underlying current of neutrality that we’re supposed to all swim along. So whenever someone starts swimming in a different direction, we pay attention.

Sometimes, people will sink – like the kid who defended Osama Bin Laden in my class last week. But most of the time, we all pick up subtle queues about other’s political leanings and remember them when group projects come along.

Amid all of this trivial mental processing, I’ve begun to notice a similar trend in the behaviors of all of my classmates.

No one picks up their newspaper at the end of the lecture. We all just leave them on the ground, walk out of Woodburn and continue on with our lives.

The pattern doesn’t stop there. Walk around any of the houses on the east side of town.

Beer bottles, Solo cups and fast food bags litter the streets. It’s disgusting.

Environmental issues are a stark dividing line in party politics, but I’ve never understood why. Liberals are quick to blame Republicans for “killing the Earth,” but I’ve seen more than one Obama bumper-stickered driver toss a cigarette butt out his window.

And many Republicans preach self-responsibility, yet practice the opposite in their everyday habits.

The entire basis of the GOP rests on the idea that we as individuals are more capable of solving our country’s problems than the government.

If we don’t all make a conscious effort to practice better environmental habits, the government will claim – perhaps rightfully so – that it has no option other than to raise our taxes.

We might never all agree on the reality of global warming. But I think we all can agree on the importance of keeping our environment clean.

Why, then, is our party so afraid of being environmentally friendly in our day-to-day actions? Because of the backlash from those who’ve apparently already “claimed” the environment.

I’ve heard, “Oh, you don’t recycle, you’re a Republican,” more than once in my time at IU.

Such a labeling process does little to further any environmental goals.

“Going green” shouldn’t be a token phrase of the left – it should be a token phrase of all the people, regardless of political affiliation, who recognize the importance of personal responsibility.