Do as the Americans do. The matter of trash and citizenship

Each time I have a meal at McDonald’s I notice one remarkable difference. You know what is it? In Russia no one even bothers to take away the dirty tray. In the USA people throw away all the trash and so get the table ready for next customers. Can other Americans come to a dirty table? Can an American walk away just leaving his trash there on the table? Next time that may be you — sitting at a trashy table. So, take away your own trash after you eat! Mind your own trash and don’t leave it there! Our Russian people do not just hope that McDonald’s staff will clean it for them but they demand it! Therefore, it looks like we don’t care a bit about other people, our “fellow countrymen,” as Americans call them. (We do not have such a notion). Who cares! I leave the trash, you come and sit at the dirty table I messed up, I don’t care. Next time I will be the one to experience this table mess. That’s all right.

The fact is that Americans volunteer. They volunteer to help, to do someone a favor, to be a real citizen of their country. They just volunteer! They just do it themselves. As easy as that! Do it yourself. No one will come and make your life a fairytale! Do it! And no one has to propagate it. Americans realized it when they established Puritan colonies. They got the idea that “if we do not help each other, all of us may die.” This simple and wise idea had been transmitted genetically through generations.

While living in the US, I got acquainted with a man, a doctor by profession, who was a fire-brigade volunteer. Any time, night or day, when there is a fire in his town, the alarm comes to his cell phone and he hurries off to help. Night or day! That’s what it means for them — to volunteer! To my question: “Why are you doing that?” he looked surprised and replied: “Well, if I wouldn’t volunteer, who would? Who would help our community if not ourselves?”

Russians do not even have such notions as “community” and “volunteer.” “Work for free?” — What a silly thing we would say. “He’s so stupid!” we would say. Well, living in Russia after living in the US, I’ve begun seeing our life from a different perspective. I realize now how sage, how sane their American position is. And I would volunteer if there were any organizations here, while in America there is a structured and developed system of community work. That doesn’t mean I will wait for something and do nothing. For example, unlike my neighbors, I do not put trash near my door or under the closest bush, I bring it all the way to the trash can. And I always clean up my own tray at McDonald’s. It is nothing heroic. It is as simple as that!

The reason is I want my country to look cleaner, to be positive. You know that famous American “positive thinking”? Be positive, be concerned about others, try to help your friend, your own sibling, your neighbor, clean up after yourself. Do not wait; do not demand someone else to come and clean for you. Do it yourself. It is your mess, so why does someone else have to clean it up?

The notion of volunteering for your community is the one we need badly now! Especially this time in our country. And it’s not “a kind of volunteering” required and guided by the Communist party. It is bringing up your own children in the sense of their duty before their community, being responsible for your environment. It is volunteering! It is the best idea we can borrow from the USA.

Each American feels a real citizen of his country. And he really is! He feels responsibility for his country, neighborhood and church. He is ready to help: to collect money for the poor, bring gifts to the children’s hospital, serve food to the homeless. That’s what I was part of living there. I was part of a community. I felt I fulfilled the duty of a citizen after this community work.

The tragedy of Russia is that a Russian does not think he is a citizen of his own country. And he is not. He acts as if he is a lousy tenant, not the owner of the house. He waits for others to come and help him. And he cries and protests if it isn’t done. Instead of just doing it himself. As simple as that.