A world changed in 60 years.

 

A world changed in 60 years.

When I was small, being sick was a dangerous business. We lived in a town of about five thousand people and had one Romanian doctor who was over 65. I was nine years old when my mother showed signs of a heart attack and my dad sent me to get doctor Harris. I had never been out of the house in the middle of the night, but I ran like hell. There were no telephones in town and we had one old doctor with his leather case containing the magical tools of his trade. He was old, but fast. He had to wait for me a few times. There was no ambulance, paramedics, or lab. He gave my mom an injection of something and she lived many more years.

I was reminded of the story last week. This time, I was the patient.

For the last two and a half years, I followed all the medical advice to avoid getting COVID. I am highly compromised, as they say. We had mandates and restrictions, as public opinion at the time demanded, and people were able to cope much better than in most other countries. Canada was better financially able to help people deal with the pandemic. Nobody starved, and no one enriched themselves, aside from the drug companies. They used the money that we gave them for research and charged a hefty price for the vaccine that we paid to develop. There was also a situation with China and another with the US where we paid and were short-changed, but we prevailed.

Since we had a high rate of vaccination, Canadians did well controlling the sickness that killed so many people around the world. The US had two to three times more deaths per capita higher than us. This would not last. It soon became politicized and viewed as governments trying to take away people’s freedoms. Our premier backed down, saying that the pandemic is over and hospitals filled up again. The medical profession lost more professionals, and we paid more for overtime.

At the beginning of summer, I followed my doctor’s advice instead of my political leaders’ wisdom, wearing a mask, sterilizing, and all but felt social pressure to abandon the practice. People were pushing their hands into mine to shake hands while others insisted on hugging. All the friends and relatives wanted to go for dinners, coffee, and travel places. The feeling was, we were vaccinated, so why worry? It’s nothing but a little cold. People ignored the news that in the US alone, more people still die from COVID each week than those who died on 9/11.

It was the economy against medical caution. Those who have businesses that grow and thrive on recreation, against those who are at higher risk for being harmed by the virus. In a world that is used to instant gratification, people came to an end of tolerance for being careful. After all majority of deaths now were in the older, more vulnerable demographics. Against were airlines, cruise companies, shopping malls, and landing institutions, to name but a few. Last Saturday I tested positive for COVID.

When my mother had a mild heart attack that was fixed by an old doctor who ran at night to save her, it was a different world. We didn’t have the scientific know-how that we have today, but we had honesty and goodwill. Now we have big businesses paying for studies designed to prove that vaccines don’t work and that rules for public health are a sign of tyrannical government. Thousands of little YouTubers with TV cameras and some basic knowledge of computers are competing for advertising money, spewing baseless opinions, and being counted as experts without any qualifications, but we count their voices as “public opinions.”

Sixty years ago, a doctor with a bag of primitive instruments and basic medications could save lives by fighting to save people. Now the fight is for political influence, money, and power. The focus has changed. People want money and power to get more money and power. If they can get it by saving lives, they will or the opposite will do. Values and morality changed.

A tiny killer virus exposed our weakness. We could fight for saving lives and suffer some, or go party it up and pretend that there is no problem. People wait for flights while the pilots and crews are too sick to fly and blame the government, and that is what we did. We blocked commerce demanding no restrictions and now I and others are paying the price. I am in pain writing to you.

A wise man said, your freedom ends at the tip of my nose. Yes, your freedom and all freedom have a price. We worked hard to advance science and in the last few years, so many of us chose not to believe in science when it’s not convenient or profitable. We can consume media that is based on studies that are paid for, not done by the most qualified people we have. It’s a choice that we make.

I watch the world news Monday morning and I am scared. Is the side of “Love your neighbor as yourself” still in the game? Are nuclear missiles or doves flying in?

Work or not work.

 

Work or not to work.

When we look at what humans have done on earth, it’s astonishing. Buildings, transportation, great inventions, and billions of humans everywhere. Look at virgin lands as we have here out of town and compare. The human animal who can’t fly, or even jump very high, can’t run fast, or eat food without long preparation, lives in large hives called Cities. People can use energy from outside of themselves to do work. When they fight each other, the damage they do is incredible. They always fight one group against another, probably for domination over each other.

Other life forms only have one goal: to stay alive. Humans are driven by an invisible force to change the planet from its natural state to something they imagine to be better for themselves. An ape will just sit on a rock while a human will make a chair. An eagle will fly as high as he can while a human will develop a supersonic flying vehicle or fly out to space. To do that, human needs the cooperation of many humans. Most humans don’t wish to fly to space, build cities or explore the depth of the oceans, so how will they get together to do that?

Here is a big problem. Some humans need to lead, and many humans must follow and provide work. Hence, there is a reason for conflict and war. Who will lead and towards what goal? The most capable humans know many ways to achieve goals and do not do it without some personal gratification. They can convince others to reach their goals, or try to force them to work. Each way is costly, but in different ways. Others cheat to get their way and scare those around them with their explosive tempers.

Much of humankind is under threat of death, by starvation, disease, violence, or many other reasons. Often, the only way they know how to live is no longer viable. They may flock to the borders of rich countries and do what they can to get in. They will do any work to survive, but their skill level is not needed. A step above them are the low-skilled workers already in rich places. Those in the lead exploit them and make them live slightly above slave status. Humans let other humans live only if they are useful to themselves.

Most people I know need to work to be happy. It’s not the money that they earn, it’s the satisfaction of doing something useful. I have one eighty-year-old friend who builds decks for minimal pay. A lot of older ladies knit and crochet to give the product away to anyone who needs it. My little grandson builds amazingly intricate structures out of Legos just to build better ones next time. Humans need work. Unfortunately, we don’t try to have people do the work that they are meant to do, but work for money. We could have specialists matching the right folks to suitable jobs available to them, but we don’t.

Our governments try hard to force people to do work that will produce high yields for some employers by denying workers basic human needs if they don’t. That is not the right or most productive way. As work is disappearing when we automate all work opportunities, we end up with many surplus people. The world can feed all living humans if we set ourselves the right goals and work to achieve them. The goal must not be to enrich a few on the work of the many as it is now. It must not be to build the capacity to kill and subjugate others, either. Attempts to use people for personal gains will get exposed and will not succeed. People may be uneducated but are not stupid.

The only goal that humans can set and truly achieve is to use the gifts bestowed upon us for the benefit of all of us. There will be cheating, laziness, and attempts to terrorize others. There will be selfish individuals who will try to steal the pay for honest work for their own gratification. Also, some humans will be lucky to just survive without contributing to the overall effort. “The poor will always be with you.” They are the test that we must pass on the way to grow into God’s likeness. We were created to face and pass tests. He is the God of all, not only the rich and powerful.

Humans are designed to be partially dependent on each other, especially at the beginning and end of life. A human is incomplete without empathy, which works for and against each individual. Nature forces us to be a part of a hive, not a superhero in an imaginary game. It takes a village to raise a child, and from a child, a village grows.

Most work hard, more or less, while some are injured and a few are lazy without a good reason. Fewer yet spend time and effort thinking, figuring out, and communicating the results. That is what we are doing here.

We don’t need to hunt others and make them work for less, but we need value for hard work. All of our riches produced by our work should benefit our kind, the animals, and the world that gives us life. There is never enough for those so insecure they need to hoard while others suffer.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Provincial Elect

 

Provincial Elect

The sun is red, and the air is smoky. I remember many years ago fires that did that. Every few years, we would see a red sun like that. It would be the talk of the town as much as floods or earthquakes are. Now I have a hard time finding out where the fire is since there are so many of them. All I know is that insurance will go up for those of us who are lucky enough not to be where the fire is. We all pay for it. Since my pension is not increasing, soon I will have to go without insurance. To solve the problem, we need leaders who will work for a long time solution.

The party in power in my province is having an election for a new leader who will be the premier. I watch and read the promises that the leadership candidates make and I fall asleep. They are not speaking about my problems, but about beating Trudeau or Notley. They promise some good jobs for a duration. Just enough to elect them. Here jobs are mostly in the energy industry with a minor improvement in agriculture.

Sorry, I am not interested. The candidates are talking about saving taxes but not much at my level. If they take more of my pension, they will have to give me welfare or deal with a hungry angry me, which is not pretty. I gave all I had to build the province and I will fight if they try to make me homeless in my later years. They talk about “efficiencies” in Health Care and they are effectively destroying the system when we need it most. Again, I am not interested. Pay our home-grown professionals enough so they will not leave us high and dry. That is Capitalism. Let the Market dictate prices. Quebec has an $18 minimum wage and no oil.

I assess the last few years’ successes of the government. They are delighted by investors bringing industries like plastics factories. They will do it with minimum staff and use labour from China for the labour-intensive parts. No benefit for our unemployed, low-skilled people. The bragging about tabling a balanced budget leaves me smiling like an idiot. Where would we have been if Russia didn’t go to war using energy as a weapon, doubling the price of oil, I wonder? At the end of the “debate”, I have only one candidate I would consider making a premier. Rajan Sawhney (Canadian-born) is talking about leading the province based on Peter Lougheed’s principles.

At this point in my life, I no longer believe that ambitious young politicians with English-sounding names (i.e. Smith) will fight for what I care about. They will try to shove me into a shared room in a private care home and save money on my health care costs unless I and others like me will fight the best we can.

In days gone by, people were busy making a living using their muscles and wits, as they still do all over the world. They looked after the young, later after the old, while contributing to the social fabric. The church institutionalized the services and the government took it over. A spoiled society was the result, demanding that governments will provide services without spending money. We became soft and whiny.

This happened with every empire in history. The next step is revolution or a takeover by the less fortunate. If a war happens involving the third world, China, India, and possibly Russia, we will lose our dominating position. The time to act is now while we can.

There are lots of good jobs for all in serving each other, developing alternative energy sources, and advancing humankind to the next level in human evolution. Those who will not contribute will remain at the bottom and not be listened to. What’s needed are good, well-intentioned governments. The time to decide is at an election. We need leaders who build things, not sugarcoat the existing world order.

People must not be tempted to win ahead of others but led towards improving the country. Our goal is not to be better off than people in Quebec but to show Quebecers how to build a country that cares about all its citizens. We don’t wish to live the lives of the rich and famous, but to have a country where no one is homeless. We care about the sick, old, and young and work to improve health care and reduce crime.

Lately, all the talk about fighting with politicians is showing results. Politicians are attacked, their families are intimidated and they need protection. I am watching my country deteriorating. I wish to see an end to the talk about fighting. I will vote for someone who offers hope, not promising to win against the rest of the country or to “beat” the opposition.

I watch the red sunset in the west and the wind change direction. Fast the sky becomes blue, and the grass looks green again. The smell of smoke is gone as if it never was. Change is possible. We must dare to work with and not resist change. I know we can.

Queen over change.

 

Queen over change.

At some point of time around 1971, I stood with a group of people who all spoke with accents, to become a Canadian citizen. We swore allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her heirs. I don’t take oaths lightly. I came from a country that fought the British for independence. Yet my parents came here because they assumed Canada was the most peaceful country in the world. It was the place that runaway slaves went to, and where the English and the French lived in peace and prospered together. With my hand on the Bible, I said the words. I strongly believe in the power of words.

Now the queen is dead, (a prayer for her soul,) and a new king is ruling over the commonwealth. We don’t know if it will change anything, but there is much room for improvement in the world. Here in the remote Crowsnest Pass, we have a memorial for soldiers who served in a Royal regiment and we love our Royal Mounted Police force that serves us well and with honor. We model our government after the British parliamentary system, which is not perfect but works better than most. I am judging by the results, not by hysterical emotions that are quick to change regularly.

In the early seventies, I used to listen on the radio to a program by Earl Nightingale. Some of my older readers may remember it. He believed, rightly, in my opinion, that “Thoughts become Things.” Human thoughts have the ability to use the creative power of God. Every one of us is the sum total of his thoughts. He is where he is because he is exactly where he truly wants to be, whether he will admit it or not. The book we swear on says, as you believe, so it shall be done unto you.

In the seventies, there was a substantial change happening. Science, medicine, and, above all, military advancements were taking place at an unprecedented speed. The human population was doubling itself every few years, and so were inventions that allowed it to happen. I got my first pocket calculator and before I mastered what it could do, home computers were becoming household items and it didn’t stop there. We were able to find a new vaccine for a raging pandemic in months instead of years. I am alive since a few well-coordinated machines connected to a “cloud” maintain my body.

The question we are facing is what initiated such a major change in human development. When Queen Elizabeth was born, most humans traveled on horses and now, she died, and most humans never touched a horse, never mind ridden one. When her highness was a child, we probably couldn’t find a human who said he or she doesn’t believe in God, and now it’s hard to find one who believes that a supernatural mind is directing human destiny unless there is a scientific test to prove it.

Perhaps new discoveries gave us new confidence in our power to change the world or the exact opposite. Possibly the theories that our thoughts create our reality caused the change to happen so fast. We become what we think about. You reap what you sow. It works both ways. You may receive what you wish, or what you are scared of. The universal mind doesn’t know the difference, only does what you think about and become emotional about. It reads emotions, assuming that they are what you want. If your thoughts are sour, you will get lemons, but you can replace lemons with lemon pie.

The best teacher ever gave the instructions in mind control in what we know as the sermon on the mount. “Ask and it shall be given unto you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and shall be opened to you. For every one that asks it, receives it. And he that seeks it finds it. And to him, that knock it shall be opened.” Most people ruin it by wanting to know how it will be done. It is not our business. All we need is a purpose and faith.

When humans have a clear and well-defined goal, the universe bends towards achieving it, but other people’s goals may change it. If the goal includes others who truly need divine assistance, it helps. Any hesitation or disbelief also causes changes. It is the unseen world that the ancient ancestors knew about, but modern people completely forgot. What we fail to understand with current science we write off as luck.

The idea of what is God also changed in seventy-five years. No longer a church God is mechanically worshipped but a spirituality that permeates all life is being understood by some. A church is the beginning of new faith, but it goes farther than that. People expect God to be everywhere and to know a person’s heart.

The monarch who “ruled with God” always saying “we” is dead and a new king will preside over a new world. Now God is understood to work with humans who can use His power by controlling their own minds. The new king and head of a church may face a reality unknown to the Queen.

What do we want?

 

 What do we want?

The first thing that every living organism wants is to stay alive here on earth. We may say we believe in eternal bliss and life after death, but we do all we can to stay alive here, even if it’s not an ideal life at all. Some people suffer greatly and wish for an end, but others step in to keep them alive. I hear over and over the saying, ”save lives” and no one dares to end lives since it’s a crime to do so. People say only God can give life and take life away.

The quality of life is another story. Nations exploit other nations to take away what they can. Corporations exploit countries and communities. Groups, races, and religions force others like them to live in poverty and misery, often making them hand over not just their natural resources but also the fruits of their labour.

Some years ago, the Western nations, including Canada, waged war on one of the poorest countries, Afghanistan. We avenged 9/11, which they didn’t do, changing the goal midway to change their culture, treatment of women, and political system. They won the war and we take revenge by freezing their savings and causing starvation of the poorest amongst them. We know we will not change them that way, but we need to feel superior even if women there will suffer the most.

When people don’t need to fight to stay alive, they strive for a better quality of life. Any and all humans would like an easy, safe way to live if possible. In my experience, very few people say I have enough and I will give the rest away. We are all insecure hoarding for the future, which is a mystery to us.

I was born into a world of roughly two billion people. The world was considered limitless. My kind of people, mostly referred to as white, viewed the earth as our possession. We had a dream. Working people like us didn’t dream about being millionaires since a class system governed our kind. Royalty and the real high class was a stuff for stories. For us, there was the American dream. People didn’t strive to go to Communist-controlled areas, but all eyes were on the US, including Canada, as a part of it. It was the America that rose from Roosevelt’s dream of the New Deal.

Working people who came back from a long war wanted union jobs, little homes in the suburbs, a car, and basic needs guaranteed. Medical and educational facilities, shorter work hours, a little holiday, often camping, and the newest gadgets that were now mass produced. I remember the adults talking about getting things that are well-made and fixable. Shoes and suits often were made by local craftspeople, and there were millions of little family-run businesses. America and Canada were campaigning for emigrants to come over.

The American dream was achieved, but the population didn’t stay at two billion people. The rest of the world, which was not “white,” began to catch up. People in what we viewed as poor remote places, such as Africa and Asia, bought into the American dream also, but without being set up to achieve it. All that humans needed was the idea of the dream.

Now we have eight billion people in the world. Communism is mostly gone and where it still exists, like in China, it is mostly only a name. No longer does the highest class of people fear the hoards of workers organizing a revolution and executing the elites to take their wealth and share it. It never worked in the first place. Cheating, stealing, and bribing work much better. Money can buy politicians, judges, media, and all other tools of power. Socialism, which birthed Communism, can be used by the rich, like in the case of “too big to fail”, and portrayed as the enemy of the working people.

A good example is a medical system in the United States. It serves only some of the people, leaving many millions of people to fend for themselves, yet it costs more per capita than the Canadian system that serves 100% of our population unless the government starves it.

I find that most people want the comfort and living conditions they see the rich enjoying. They know they can’t have it, so they settle for cheap imitations. Not everyone’s grandfather had a chain of pleasure houses as grandfather Trump is alleged to have operated in New York. Some luck out and make a fortune by their own merit, but most make do serving the rich.

Those who serve, or live where there is no hope, are just waiting for an opportunity to turn the tables and be on top. They know from history that it will come. Those called “The have got” try to fortify their wealth and protect it, but there is no way to do it. The leaders of the Roman Empire hired foreign mercenaries who took over the Empire, and it was forever repeated. The only way is to limit the temptations and be reasonable with how much each takes. This can only be done voluntarily since we don’t start the game with an even playing field.

Humans must kill the ego or give the Earth to the next life form that nature will provide.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

 

 

Moral compass…

What we humans of the year 2022 call space, the ancient ancestors called the world without end. Also, the World, or Earth in English, is a ball of rock that has no end. Living in a town on some natural land where I can observe animals, I see that they have creative abilities but are far below the human level. I see signs of love, hate, and jealousy, but not morality. Humans make choices based on morality and even in the age of science, morals or lack of morals plays a part in what we do, or do not do. Groups of people, nations, religions, political parties, cults, and others claim superiority over each other. They all struggle with morality.

I look at the world today. Putin is using the huge Russian army to threaten the world. The Russians listen to his propaganda and believe that they are fighting for a moral cause. They fight to defend the motherland. The western business that owns western governments is setting up to take over their country. They die to protect their freedom, or so they think.

In the US, there is turmoil that could start a civil war over who is the rightful president. That is a moral issue. The evangelical churches believe that “Socialists” who stole the elections from a president that they worship threaten their freedom of religion. If the laws and constitution stand in the way, the moral thing to do is change the constitution. They want to stop separating Church and State. A dangerous move, in my opinion.

Here in Canada, we see a new breed of people. Mostly less educated folks who “educated” themselves through conspiracy theories on the internet, demanding an end to our democracy. They want to install a government that will not force them to do what they deem unjust regardless of elections, laws, and the majority’s opinion. If the government tries to protect the people from a deadly disease, the government must go. They claim moral authority to pick and choose laws they are willing to obey and damage the existing system in the process.

I can go through a list of countries where some group or another, even the military, fight for what they deem morality, to gain political power. Often, morality is used for gaining wealth or prestige. It is also used to remove people from powerful posts and destroy careers that took a lifetime to build. It seems as if humans are born with a gene for morality, but what is moral or not is still being debated.

We translate morality into religious beliefs or atheism, which became just another religion. Those who were traditionally tasked with teaching morality, mainstream religions, are found to be some of the major offenders against morality. In a few years, court cases accusing priests, teachers and other people of authority grew to alarming proportions.  

I have a book from the seventies that was used for training managers. It clearly states to touch subordinates and tell them what you appreciate. Now I heard a woman who is suing an Archbishop for harassment saying, “he touched me on the shoulder and I felt uncomfortable”. I personally always felt uncomfortable touching people but was trained to do so as part of the art of managing people. Somewhere morality changed while we were using it.

Now, morality is seeping into business. Self-driving vehicles are available and have fewer accidents than human-driven cars. We hold them back from production because we can’t agree on moral issues that would have to be programmed into the vehicle’s computers.

The war in Ukraine exposed another problem. Both warring armies are using unmanned drones and fighting robots. Mistakes are happening since there is no human pulling the trigger on the killing machines. You and I are voting on the issues as part of political parties' platforms. We have no idea what we are voting for, so we chose a political party with the most popular leader at the time. Look at how many people in the West are voting mainly to defeat Trudeau regardless of the issues governing the country. I am also guilty. I should join the leading party and vote for a leader of my choice.

My church took a public side in the proposed laws regarding euthanasia. As a human with many health issues, I prefer to have an escape hatch if the pain becomes unbearable, but I am voting with my group on issues of morality. I am a hypocrite, I know it, and still do it.

In the West, the moral code of humankind was developed from one book in two volumes. The Bible, Old and New Testament. The Old Testament talked about punishing people if they disobey or defame God and the New about forgiving, sharing, and sacrificing material things for a glorious reward. That reward was a promise of a “Kingdom” yet not available. Both books deal with morality in terms of helping the needy, sharing, and treating others as we wish to be treated. We can easily assume that the Heaven we strive for is the same world with ethics and morality, beating selfishness and cheating.

The Bible doesn’t mention abortions, euthanasia, or other political matters but is concerned about love, faith in God, and treatment of the less fortunate or those unable to win in the game of life.

 

What is attractive about little mountain towns?

Many years ago, I drove through the Crowsnest Pass towns and was so impressed that I told people about that nice place that I found. Now I am one of the old timers here. It was a place that, according to one visitor, “time has passed by”. It had the historical look and all the amenities that a person needs. Hospital, mall, grocery stores, hardware, and lumber.

When I arrived, a herd of mountain sheep greeted me by an old white Anglican church. Cars were slowing down and folks taking pictures. Now uniformed public servants chase them away. The place was old but clean. I remembered visiting the towns some years before when mining was still going on. The same streets and buildings, but coal dust dulled the colors. Now the sun looked brighter. Beside an old home on the main street, a deer was napping in the shade and two fawns were grazing. “Free lawn care included”, crossed my mind, but there was a fence keeping creatures out of the flowers.

It was clear that the place was changing. The whole world was transforming. No longer we need many people for menial jobs and not everyone can be technicians or white-collar workers. Those were quickly disappearing as well. Computers were doing the old jobs. The new interest now was around traveling, recreation, and jobs are in the service industries. The Pass is an ideal place for it.

In the mornings when the sun rises, the mists lift over the mountain trails, lakes, rivers, and forests, drawing people. People are good for the economy. We should not be trying to do all things with less labor, but the opposite. We must realize that we feed each other or we all be gone. It is good for the economy if many people have good, well-paying jobs. Here in the Pass, there is a feeling of healing in the air. In the period after the first world war, they sent injured veterans here to a sanatorium in Frank.

It was amazing to look for a retirement place where moose and bears roamed and half of the population owned pets. Here in the mountains, there was an obvious relationship between people, animals, and nature that didn’t exist in the city, but it was under threat.

After I moved here, some old people told me about their worries. An old friend expressed the sentiment in a few words. People come to visit here, he said, and they are impressed by what we have. They like our way of life and some move here. A short time later, they get busy changing the place to be exactly like the places they moved from. You can see it in everything.

People talk about shopping locally to keep the place going. The new business owners bring the city business attitude in. Soon prices here are rising since competition is far away. They forced the locals to go to big box stores away from town, and when they get too old to travel, seniors move. Our community is changing. He pointed out the fact that we had a lot of little self-sustained businesses and they disappeared when Walmart arrived in a nearby town. True enough, I met many of our locals at Walmart, Costco, and other chain stores.

Slowly, in front of my eyes, the little community that attracted me began to change and the friendly little town atmosphere dissipated. My son-in-law came for a visit and said, grandpa, what is happening to your little town? I drive through the main street and every business has a for sale or rent sign. Is the place going to survive? I was wondering myself.

The town didn’t realize what was really killing it. Instead of working to retain the little community atmosphere, they tried to make it more like the city. Soon we saw new bylaws forcing people to not have pets. Another old resident called me to complain. He lost his closest relatives in a short time and was denied his ability to drive, for his safety, of course.

His lifelong friend, his cat, was sentenced to life in prison by the authorities. Might as well be stuffed as decoration. There must be a cat hater on the council. The guy had a dog that took him for walks. When all public spaces were taken off limits for free, well-behaved dogs, he had to give the dog up. He can’t drive to an “off-leash” place. You know Avner he said, our environment determines our life span. Studies prove that people who attend church live 15 years longer, and married and pet owners live 8 years more. I could not argue. He is right.

As I watched, things were changing again. The hills filled up with new homes and the for sale signs disappeared. Older homes are being renovated and people move in to work from home. Others are coming to spend their holidays here, close to animals and nature. I hope that our local leaders will notice and act quickly.

Let people have pets and relearn how to live with nature, not be at war with it. That is our edge. Reward little businesses that don’t gouge residents and welcome competition instead of killing it in its infancy. The best council is one that removes useless laws not enact new restrictions wholesale. Let us be what we are, a little community that lives with nature and provides what cities can’t.