Anger and Despair

Baltimore, MD 12/24/18 9:30 PM

"Keep Writing! she says.  The last thing I heard. Words from the hostess as I left her wonderful Christmas Eve party.  Barely a block from my house in the city.  So different from the setting of my country cottage in Nova Scotia where my neighbors are far away and invisible due to the forests that surround our homes.

And so, unable to resist that dictate,  pure music to a writer's ears, here I am.

OK.  So what's happened since my last Euphoric post?

By email, I ran my "Killer App" idea past the Group of about 20 activists I'm working with to stop the Clear Cutting which threatens the pristine forest right across the road from "Seabrook" my country home in rural Nova Scotia as well as forests all over this beautiful Canadian Province.

What I believe is that no one, except the government and the Commercial Forestry Industry, wants this to happen yet it's destined to do so.

This Clear Cutting will be on "Crown Land".  In Canada, public land is called "Crown Land", a throwback to the British Empire.

Did you know that the Queen of England is also the Queen of Canada?  And the head of state in Canada is the Governor General who represents the Queen of England while the Prime Minister, where the real power lies, is the head of Government.  In fact, He/She (the PM) appoints the Governor General.  Well if you know that you can understand why they call public land Crown Land in Canada.

The point of this disquisition is that the vast majority of the citizens of Nova Scotia to whom this Crown land does, in fact, belong (since it's public), don't want Clear Cutting yet the Government with callous disregard for their wishes approves this destruction.  How can this be?

Well, you know the answer.  "Special Interests" .. in this case, the Commercial Forestry Industry is getting its way, not the citizens and voters. Money talks.

That's how Democracy works these days.  Governments do the bidding of the Special Interests unless the voters really make their wishes known in a way that the politicians can't ignore.

So I came up with the idea that the Group I'm working with should start a Petition and tell the Government to do their job and represent the citizens, not the Commercial Forestry Industry.

Much to my surprise, the first reaction from a member of the Group was to say she didn't think Petitions were effective.  But then another said she thought one might be.

So I wrote a draft petition for the Group's consideration. And I went  into some detail explaining  the nuisances of its design, how this could be launched on one of the online petition Internet sites and how using modern technology (making it into a "Killer App") this could go viral so the Government might get the idea they better start paying attention to the voters or they would be looking for other employment following the next election.

I emailed it to the Group and excited about all this I went to bed anticipating an outpouring of Kudos upon opening my email in the morning.

Alas instead, the reaction was, to describe it kindly. "underwhelming".  More accurately it was downright rude. With one of the Group saying we should think carefully before we do anything. As if I hadn't done just that?

Given the time I'd spent on this and my fear that any day the loggers could show up to rip up the forest I found this really discouraging.

But, I'd seen this movie before.  Working with a Group in Baltimore on saving the trees in a public park I knew how difficult working with a committee can be.

You know the definition of a Camel?   A Horse designed by a Committee.  Committees can be awfully difficult to work with getting an agreement and actually getting stuff done.

Fortunately,  I bit my tongue and didn't email the group and say what I thought of them for rejecting (or more accurately) ignoring my brilliant idea.  From my previous experience, I'd learned that my ego and frustration can sometimes (believe it or not) get the better of me.

Then, I thought, hey,.  I can do this all by myself.  I don't need anyone's approval I can just start this petition myself.

So I proceeded to the next step which was to review all the online petition sites to pick the best one for my petition.

But guess what.  None of the online Petition sites did anything close to what I envisioned.

So I thought I'm going to have to program this myself and this is not going to be easy. Good thing no one expects anything from me with my idea.  I feel pressured enough by the fear of the loggers showing up any day.  In fact, my neighbor in the forest across the road right next to the threatened acres tells me he has been told the Logger Group will give him only one day notice before they show up and start cutting.

Yet I have a vision.  With the marvels of modern technology, I see my Petition winging its way across the Province of Nova Scotia gathering speed and signers at an ever-increasing rate. Hundreds, then thousands then hundreds of thousands reaching a number so high that even the callous politicians will pay attention to the citizens' wishes.  Lest they fear they'll need to seek other employment after the next election.

So that's where I am.  My excitement turned to Anger and Despair at my Group's reaction or lack thereof .. then relief that I wouldn't be pressured to do what is looking a lot more complicated than I thought and now I have "only" the pressure from myself to get this done before the loggers arrive.

And with the thrill of creating a new platform for change.  One now not available. A new creation. Amazing that I have the opportunity to create this.  If I can.

I do have the skills and love of computer programing to do this. Can't imagine anything more fun than this.

And calming down and observing, I've grown to appreciate even more this group of Canadians I'm privileged to be working with. Who are dedicated and actively working and are plotting some pretty dramatic stuff which must not see the light of day here now but, God willing, will in the future.

Fortunately, It's the Holiday season so I don't think the loggers will show up before January and maybe one of those great Nova Scotia snow storms will come to give me extra time. I'll just have to go as fast as I can and see if I can do this in time to make a difference.

I Just checked the weather up there. It's below freezing with snow flurries.

Pray for bad weather!

I'll let you know what happens next, but I have to get back to work. The clock is ticking.

Happy Holidays and thanks for reading!