The City Mouse in the Country

When I first moved to the country I wanted to get involved in something.  I wanted to become part of the community.  I wanted to belong to, and add to, something greater than myself.    In small town America that usually means joining a Church or your local volunteer fire department but since I'm an agnostic bordering on atheism, the local Church was out.   I'm also old and out of shape so the fire department was out.    So that left the Odd Fellows who have a local chapter close to my home. While I may not always agree with who my local chapter supports as an organization and what they do butI know that I am making a small difference in the life of my community somehow.   A homeless person manages to snuggle under blankets provide by the Odd Fellows on a cold winter's day, a child gets a scholarship, someone gets a warm meal.  Today we don't think much about mutual aid unless we are giving funds to some charity or faced with some sort of natural disaster.   Many of us

  Let me state that first and foremost that I am a Pacifist.   I don't believe in violence in any way, shape or form nor do I believe that violent actions are ever justified. That being said I was reading an opinion piece on an environmentalist discussion board calling for more direct - and confrontational - action concerning climate change and social justice. I can understand the writer's comments and their frustration.  That being said I personally cannot condone or support any act of violence in the name of ecology or social justice (or any other cause for that matter).  That's just my personal belief that any violence just begets more violence...and that solves nothing. I may have been reading to much into it or supplanting my own fears and anxiety onto the author of the original piece  I do feel it's an idea worth commenting on however because the solutions needed are complex and intertwined and frankly require more than slap dash attempts at "policy." B