I asked her, "Do you allow swimming in those rivers with all your city sewers flushing into them?"
"Oh, no," she replied. "We are allowed to swim only in ocean or river waters, where there are constant water changes, and not in rivers where waters are used for drinking, and not, as you Earth people do, in swimming pools. Moreover, our city sewers from toilets, and dishwashing machines do not run into our rivers; they are too valuable to be wasted. The sewerage is run or pumped to large reservoirs with our garbage. The solid matter is taken out and reprocessed into fertilizers, and the liquids are pumped to fertilize our deserts and other lands that need it.
"The clean rain water washing down from roofs of buildings through our rain spouts goes into another sewer line which spills it far out into the ocean; the rain water from our streets is absorbed by the soil of our lawns. We do not allow the pollution of our fresh river drinking waters or our ocean beaches. Not like on your Earth where many drinking water sources are simply open sewers, with one town drinking sewage from the next upriver town. One of the worst offenders is New York. It empties millions of gallons of inadequately treated sewage into the harbor each day, consequently it makes swimming at nearby beaches risky.
"Neither do we allow the pollution of our fresh air, as you Earth people do with your sewage, gases permeating the air on your streets and through roof vent pipes. These gases are absorbed by our vacuum pumps and made use of either as fertilizers or as other elements.
"We have read how you Earth people are made ill from poisonous fumes that permeate the air in all your manufacturing cities. Los Angeles with its smog is one of the worst offenders. We know that chimney soot definitely produces cancer and that asthmatics' hearts give out because they can scarcely breathe when the air is thick with smog."
I asked her, "Don't the workers at these sewer pumps and fertilizing plants feel a strong aversion for their work?"
"On the contrary," she answered, "for these services we have a long waiting list of applicants from our most brilliant young volunteers. Some of them have made very meritorious achievements, and a few have reached our rank degrees. A youth is disgraced and ostracized by our girls who does not put in his full volunteer year working diligently at what you Earth people call the lowest menial occupations.
"The youth who does the most menial work is the one we admire the most, and the one we consider most honorable. Why should it be menial, when after all, it is a mutual human service? We give to each other, to the healthy and to the sick, service for their comforts. Would you call the duties of mothers, nurses or physicians menial?
"We are shocked and amazed to see on your Earth so many of your young, healthy, robust, energetic young men who without pride or shame are engaged in many non-productive occupations as well as in some which are detrimental to the rest of you. Our youths, in fact all our workers, would indignantly spurn such employments.
"Nor would any of our youths marry a young lady who did not put in her volunteer year as practical, probation, and aid nurse in our hospitals.