Green Comet

Credit Ben FrantzDale – CC-BY-SA

From time to time I will be publishing posts from guest authors whose writings I think will interest people. Of course, all opinions and assertions in these posts belong solely to the authors and do not necessarily agree with mine. Please direct your praise and criticism to the author. This post makes reference to a specific community, but the overall message is more universal. — rjb

Today’s guest author is Laird Smith.

Laird Smith

Wally and Auntie Kay Smith moved to Oliver during the Dirty 30’s, built a house and stayed in it for thirty plus years before building another house 100 meters away and moving again.

There are many good things to say about staying in one place. Many residents live in Oliver who were born there, schooled there, married there, and chose to stay there and live out their lives in the same community.

Some chose to operate their parents farm or business or started a business themselves, all serving the community as best as they could. Their choice spared them the disruption of moving to a new community and starting over again. Moving is expensive, mentally, physically, emotionally, and materially. By experience I know this to be true for I have moved many times, always by choice.

There is one segment of our society that has very bad judgement, and continuously puts themselves in harms way as they go in and out of jail, which means starting over every time, everywhere they go. Of course some learn and stay out of jail, but that story is for another day.

I have written the odd time or two about my move and life in Walla Walla Washington during the 1990’s. I have also mentioned, I believe, about my involvement in the City Crime Watch organisation there. It was formed to integrate civilians with the police department to cooperatively protect the City from the criminal element which is always at large.

I would have continued my active involvement with the City Crime Watch but chose to return to Canada where we settled in Red Deer, Alberta. There I became active in a civilian advisory group working with the RCMP. After ten years I moved again, this time to Edmonton.

Now I’m connected with the Edmonton Community League Block Connectors. The Community Leagues all have Block Connectors which are a link between the local neighborhoods and the Community Leagues. These groups work together to administer the City strategies for the well being of everyone.

I have been reading in ODN about the need for volunteers in Oliver to assist the RCMP in community policing. One might say, ” hire more police, I don’t want to be involved in policing! ” Well folks, police are not being trained fast enough. Alberta alone requires 230 more RCMP just to maintain standard policing numbers.

With Alberta having that need, where does that put the rest of Canada let alone li’l old Oliver? The answer for Oliver is community policing. Citizens MUST be actively involved in volunteering with the RCMP. A recent article in ODN said, ” one 4 hour shift per month is all that is required. ” That doesn’t seem to be an expectation that is impossible to meet, is it?

Think of the goal, making the community safer by putting more eyes on the street in coordination with the federally hired officials ( RCMP ) who know the law to protect you while you volunteer. Your accompaniment will give the officials comfort in numbers.

Isn’t it time to take back the streets, the pathways, and the alleys of Oliver?

With the population of Oliver at 5000, if just 1% volunteer, that number is 50 men and women. If half a % volunteer, that number is 25 men and women which is perhaps more realistic. Surely 25 people out of 5000 can step forward and commit to 4 hours a month to help protect the community of Oliver from the criminal element which seek to undermine the vulnerable. We are all vulnerable at one time or another.

During the 1970’s, Auntie Kay Smith was active in motivating the citizens of Oliver to build an arena because of the need. Look at how the citizens responded, you have an arena meeting the needs of the people. Once again, the call is going out to the citizens of Oliver to respond to a need. Will you be willing to respond before the need reaches a crisis point?

Laird Smith

Credit Ben FrantzDale – CC-BY-SA

Guest Post

From time to time I will be publishing posts from guest authors whose writings I think will interest people. Of course, all opinions and assertions in these posts belong solely to the authors and do not necessarily agree with mine. Please direct your praise and criticism to the author. — rjb

Today’s guest author is Laird Smith.

Laird Smith

Auntie Kay and Wally Smith attended the Oliver United Church the whole time they lived in the Oliver district. They and a number of fruit grower families as well as the odd teacher and town businessmen and their families also faithfully attended and supported the Church. It was that same Church where we children heard about Jesus Christ and God.

My understanding of God was limited to a great peace I sensed when I was in our dew or rain laden garden one morning at the age of four. How “church” related to that peace, I did not know. Even as a teenager I was unable to understand how God related to where I was at. For me it was all very confusing, but I was always a seeker of that elusive peace.

A little over a year ago, I wrote a series in ODN (a news aggregation site – rjb) about my experience with a Christian control church which influenced me for 27 years. My summary of that 27 years, 5 of which were spent reprogramming myself so I could live apart from the control church, was that I have not been able to define who God is. I just know there is something greater than myself. There is a goodness in the world which we can either fight or do our best to live with ( for lack of a better word ) the entity.

Leaving the control church was the best move for me at that time. I was reintroduced to the real world through driving taxi at night. Dealing with intoxicated people awakened me very fast to reality. In fact, I would say that the intoxicated are on the same level as the religious radicals, in that you are unable to reason with either of them. They both have their minds set and that is the way it has to be. As a taxi driver, trying to get everyone home safely, those opinions cannot be discussed even if they are so prejudiced and so wrong and so damaging, I just had to ignore them and get on with the job.

When I belonged to Toastmasters International, we were taught that constructive criticism is the foundation of change. The formula was in two parts; first point out a problem and second provide a solution. If only the problem is pointed out then we are just complainers. If no solution is provided then don’t bring up the problem. In the three control churches I attended ( in three different cities ), none of them taught their members how to provide constructive criticism. When criticism was leveled at the leadership, and it had spread, they blamed it on disgruntled, sinful members, and charged the whole congregation as being guilty so all had to pay. That came in the form of repentance as a group. For the incident I’m thinking of, the senior Pastor commanded seven hundred people to rise from their chairs during the morning service, and stand side by side ringing the sanctuary. The Pastor told everyone to kneel, I could not, being a critically minded Toastmaster. I remained standing trying to melt into the wall because I was the only member left standing. The Pastor commanded all to repent, I could not, again because the whole event was faulty. When all was said and done, I was never reproached for not participating.

One Biblical concept that I try to live by is to “be my brothers’ keeper.” We can also extend that to being a keeper of this good Earth. Help when you can, let someone drive in before you, open a door, pick up paper off the street, help paint a fence, walk a dog, etc, etc.

Several years ago I had two TIAs (Transient Ischemic Attacks,) known as mini strokes. After the first one, I experienced life in a way I’d not seen before. Every day was a delight! Being alive was wonderful! I had moments when a stream of euphoria would rise up from somewhere within me, absolutely delighting me, then something would interrupt me and the euphoria would be gone. I sensed a closeness to a divine presence unlike anything I’d ever had. The peace was there constantly, no longer elusive. I could think clearly when tackling a problem and then I knew the solution. That lasted twenty nine days then the second TIA took it all away, not that I’m unhappy with being alive, just that being alive is more difficult than it was, and the peace is back to being elusive.

I’m thankful that I had the opportunity to spend time in a different frame of mind. I’ve always known there is something greater than us humans. To actually experience it in such an unusual way through a brain altering stroke is a miracle. I count myself fortunate to have come out of the event in one piece.

Laird Smith