Though there weren’t too many events left on the calendar, there is no way that you could characterize these past seven days as a slow news week.
It makes choosing the topic for an editorial much more difficult.
Should the column inches be used to lambaste the dolts in Fort Coulonge who recklessly endangered their neighbour’s properties and then had the bright idea to post their imbecilic escapades to social media?
Lord knows opinion writers like a good dogpile to join in on, especially when the targets of derision are so obviously in the wrong, but what can be said here that hasn’t already been said in online comment sections or at the counter of the local gas station?
They’re dimwits, let’s move on.
Should this editorial be about haranguing dapper, debutant leaders like Trudeau or Ford for their photo ops with flood victims? Expecting high-level politicians not to have their every public movement recorded in this day and age is like thinking bears in the woods actually use Charmin when they do their business. It also begs the question, would citizens rather that politicians stay in their offices during disasters or be out meeting the affected population?
Next.
This week’s editorial isn’t going to be about the outliers, the people that don’t represent the average Joe and Jane Pontiac. The remaining inches in this column are going to be dedicated to trying to encapsulate what it means to be a part of a community. The real problem is going to be not leaving anyone out, so it’ll be best to paint with a broad brush.
Over the past few weeks, residents, emergency services and local officials have outdone themselves in their work to safeguard people, property and pets from the surging bodies of water throughout the Valley. There have been numerous stories from Chapeau to Breckenridge and everywhere in between about the generosity of the Pontiac. Stories of locals dedicating their time and effort to sandbagging, hauling dirt, lending out watercraft and donating provisions, all because it’s just the way things are done here.
The best advertisement for this area is not a glossy travel brochure or our amenities, though they are helpful, to be sure. It’s when outsiders see that people in small communities pull together when fate conspires to make their lives more difficult. It’s seeing local businesses take a hit to their profit margins in order to ensure their neighbours aren’t manning pumps on an empty belly. It’s local students and seniors sandbagging alongside soldiers who’ve never visited our corner of the province.
The forces threatening to divide modern populations – changes in climate, technology or the economy – don’t have a chance of prevailing as long as citizens remember that they are a part of something bigger than themselves, that they are part of a community.
Caleb Nickerson
