Yes I skipped a week, so sue me….
Actually I was too steamed up last week to post this, now I can do it without the bile rising up and my face getting all red.
I believe in personal freedom. You should have the right to do what you want, so long as you are not impinging on the rights of others. Too bad some people just don’t get the last part.
So I will take you back just over a week ago.
I’ve just arrived at a provincial park, in the “near north” around Sudbury Ontario. As I check in, I get a pretty direct bear warning – bears have been seen in the area you are camping in – please read the bear protocols in this park newspaper etc.
After I set up, someone across the road in the campsite opposite comes over to also warn us the bear has been seen two sites over.
So it wasn’t a suprise I hear a bear in the night, and I was glad he passed through a clean site (mine) without waking anyone else.
I found out the next morning that he had stayed at a nearby site that had failed to heed the warnings and keep the site food free. They had been given a lecture, a warning and a bear information package. You’d think that it would sink in.
But that night, we found out that it hadn’t. They’d been fishing that day, caught some tasty pikeral and cooked them up. Then they had heard about a presentation at the ampitheatre at 8:30, and they left their campground without cleaning up.
Well at 9 I could hear the commotion, and I and some of my fellow alpha males went to do what we are called on by the bear protocols to do; stand together, scare off the bear.
Only it seems this bear was in no way intimidated by us and he continued to trash the site.
The wardens eventually did drive off the bear with a paintball gun fill with rubber balls, but he didn’t leave the area altogether, and we had some further encounters.
The offenders were lectured and made to pack up and leave that night.
What gets me is this. If we are sharing a space, you don’t have the right to be reckless. Their behaviour endangered us all, including the bear, who I’m sure will be eventually put down.
Whats gets me is that even after a life lesson on the subject, these idiots were irresponsible enough and stupid enough to continue the behavior.
The roadways are similar. Too often I see people driving recklessly without regard to the others who are also on the road. Just the other day, I was cut off by someone who changed lanes right in front of me, causing me to brake hard. He didn’t use signals, he barely paused as he moved one lane to the next and then in front of me. I honked of course, and that caused him to hit the brakes. Except of course his brake lights weren’t working.
Now before you stereotype it, this was not some young kid in a souped up Civic, it was a white haired white male driving a minivan.
I’m sorry, if you want to play boy racer, don’t do it on the public roads, find a race track or closed course somewhere.
The point of the rant is this; people need to pay attention to the impact that their actions have on others. There is no absolute freedom to be an idiot if you are potentially threatening the safety of others.
James
