Dear Editor,
After watching the events in Washington. D.C. of Jan. 6, one thing that was astounding, is how some citizens can suspend their sense and responsibility to simple right and wrong to serve their short-term personal agenda or interests – regardless of the longer-term – and sometimes severe – consequences to others. To many around the world the U.S. Capitol is a shrine of freedom and democracy – and, something to be cherished.
This last Sunday, January 10, while contemplating these thoughts, during a head-clearing walk with my dog along some of Ridge Meadows beautiful diking system, I happened across a huge pile of construction waste – unceremoniously dumped – right at the gates of another shrine – our beautiful, natural pathway.
And while there was no violence, no ‘political’ ramifications, or any of the other trappings of what happened in D.C., the same awareness of how some ‘citizens’ can care so little for their own souls (self-respect works here, too), came immediately to mind.
For many of us, being outside is our ‘church’. The birds, our choir. The natural order of things, our ‘religion’.
I felt the same sadness that I had felt on Wednesday, when seeing this pile of disrespect dumped at the pathway gate.
To the person, or persons who did this thing: if you are reading this, please consider carefully that there is a cost beyond what you have saved paying at the transfer station.
A cost to wildlife, a cost to taxpayers, and a cost to yourself. You have diminished yourself within your own mind, and heart – and you knew this the moment you drove away.
Like those who vandalized simple human dignity and morality, right and wrong, symbols of freedom – somehow, sometime, you will atone. To yourself.
Charles Porlier, Pitt Meadows
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