Dog Poop Bags and Swans

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Dear fellow dog owners, and everyone else who walks, hikes, travels respectfully through urban, rural and wild spaces: we have much work to do. There is a segment of the human population that seem to need their decks of cards topped up, or their knives sharpened.

Walking my dog yesterday I came across five dog Poop Bags that somehow did not make it to the conveniently placed park garbage cans. Three were at the can itself – one on the lid and two on the ground nearby. One of the other two was tossed into a neighbour’s hedge, and the last one had simply been dropped on the sidewalk.

A person who is less intelligent than their dog should not be allowed to own one. Surely in this day and age we should know where to put our garbage, our recycling, our compost, and our pet’s poop! Speaking of which, surely in this day and age if we saw a freshwater lake filled with Trumpeter Swans and the sounds of myriad wildlife coming from the surrounding verdant fields, we would celebrate it. Nope. Some humans want to fill that lake with construction waste. Maybe they see a different kind of green.

Yep, the same kinds of humans who don’t know where to properly put their dog shit, would probably not understand the complete and utter stupidity of destroying a restored greenspace. In the next municipal election we have the choice to recycle them, or put them in the garbage. We all get composted one day.

The way I see it

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*Image from Dr. Seuss

A Blood Red Carpet

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The most shocking thing about the meeting in Alaska between President Trump and President Putin was that there was not an arrest.

A war criminal arrives in a country bound by UN obligations to enforce the warrants the International Criminal Court and he is greeting with hand clapping by President Trump and a red carpet role out by kneeling American soldiers. WTF!

Yes, Donald, it was a red carpet all right, stained with the blood of 1,000,000 Ukrainians.You have revealed yourself to not only be a complete buffoon on the international stage, but a traitor to all the values of the American dream.

The Statue of Liberty hangs her head in shame. The way I see it.

Lessons from Ukraine

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We are bearing witness to one of the most obscene moments in 21st century history. A President with a malignant narcissistic personality disorder is sitting down with a President who is the epitome of the cold blooded killer to determine the fate of another country.

One is only interested in mineral wealth, the other wants to expand his borders. Neither President cares one iota about the country they are screwing. If the rest of the free world allows this travesty to continue, we are all screwed.

So far, Canada and 26 EU countries (except for Dictator Orban’s Hungary) have issued a statement in support of Ukraine. Ukraine is the canary in the coal mine. If Trump and Putin take this one south, western “democracy” has failed. The way I see it.

There’s the Rub

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Ah, you have to love Hamlet. “To sleep; perchance to dream: ay there’s the rub: for in that sleep of death what dreams may come?”

We already knew things were rotten in many of our political states, but sometimes the explanations that politicians give for their actions is like we were in a dreamworld. “Oh yes, my family personally benefited from my cryptocurrency scam, but it did not affect  my decision to allow people to bid for a seat at my dinner table.” “Oh yes, this developer contributed thousands to my personal fundraiser, but it did not affect my decision to change our laws to give him what he wanted.” Ay, there’s the rub.

My wife recently submitted her first ever political comment to our local newspaper. Our local politician did not answer a single one of her questions, instead submitting a “Statement” reminiscent of the Schrodinger’s cat hypothesis. The issue of concern to my wife has to do with a motion, submitted by the Mayor of a town, to allow a developer to infill a fully rehabilitated gravel pit’s freshwater lake with his excess soil. The site is not currently zoned to receive excess soil, so the Strong Mayor initiated a motion to allow this to happen. The developer just happens to be a major donor to the mayor’s private fundraisers.  Not saying that there is any connection, but the perception of conflict of interest is there.

The politician’s response to my wife’s letter was calm and treasonable and meaningless. The motion she brought forward should never have been raised in the first place. It was misleading in its description of the site and a violation of the Town’s own By-laws. Now it is subject to staff reviews as to whether or not the lake should be infilled. And who is paying for those reviews? Will they be subject to  impartial review?  This is potentially a tragedy of common sense and ethics. apparently illegal, and for those who have seen “Swan Lake”, most definitely immoral.

Are we sleepwalking ourselves into the death of democracy in our community?  Politicians issuing sweet words in media releases that lull us to sleep but say nothing of truth, nothing of accountability, nothing of apology.

That is truly rotten. The way I see it.s

Think Global, Act Local. Care personally.

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It’s an old adage. We take in news of Ukraine, Gaza, Trumpism and we learn as much as we can about the issues most relevant to us. At home, we focus on reducing conflict between neighbours, caring about human rights for the unhoused in our community, eliminating arrogance and stupidity in our locally elected representatives.

The key in all of this is to care personally. That is the spark that drives people to act and change things for the better, whether it be human rights, global security, or ethical governance.

“Pick your hill on which to die,” is the old rallying cry of the military. It stated that you were willing to die for your family, beliefs, or country. So, what’s your hill? Mine globally is Gaza – a two state solution with equal defense capabilities for both states, and Ukraine – a complete withdrawal of Russian occupying forces from any seized territories, including the post-Olympics Crimea snatch when the world fell asleep.

Locally, it would be the recovery of responsible democracy in the age of Doug Ford’s Strong Mayors. In particular, the saving of Swan Lake, 0 Shaw’s Creek Road, Caledon. The relationship between developer’s interests and money can quickly corrupt local political decisions, like let’s change the by-laws to permit excess soil dumping in the freshwater lake of a fully rehabilitated former gravel pit.

Some things are global catastrophes. Some are local disasters. Let’s start at home and save Swan Lake. The way I see it