Author Disclosure
I am frustrated with the situation, as we all are – not just with the Highway District but with myself for not being active enough – and this is much a call-to-action for me as anyone else.

Some dream of success while others wake up and work for it.

Winston Churchill

Too many times we have been discouraged and shutdown, pushed around and defeated. Accepting defeat is a stage of maturity and should be learned early in life. Some, who spoke adamantly and eloquently at the Public Involvement Meeting, have push forward in pursuing legal options or volunteered for the door-to-door information campaign. While others, as passionate and eloquent as the next, have slipped from public view and involvement.

We all have busy lives and hectic schedules. 2020 has been dubbed “the year of inconvenience,” but we really need to ask ourselves what is this worth?
Too often people look at a State/National/International problem and throw in the towel for everything else. “I cannot fix the polluted oceans, so I’m not going to bother picking up the trash in my neighborhood.” Is it not worth the time to pickup the plastic bag on the sidewalk by your house for the very least of having a clean sidewalk?

“Politicians are all the same, they’re going to do what they do.”

Serious question: Is it not worth the time and effort to at least try and prevent the bridge? Ask yourself (and I will do the same). Do you really believe that we have no power at all over the decisions made 2 miles from Greensferry Road?

Discouraged, shutdown, pushed around and defeated – but not this day.
We cannot solve the national debt, but we can balance our checkbook. If you feel defeat is inevitable, ask yourself how would you like to go out, throwing a punch with passion and resolve, or not?

The question is simple: Is it worth it to try? What can we do?

YES, it is worth it! We can do something! Ignore national politics and focus local. Ignore the pundits and form your own opinion. Be an expert in your community – inform and be informed.
“Many hands make much work light.” We need many hands to cover the ground on the north and south side of the river, to encourage public comment and participation in the discussion. Will my hands be among them?

And no, someone else will not do it, it’s up to us.

I am reminded of an interaction between Frodo and Gandalf in J. R. R. Tolkien’s work, The Fellowship of the Ring.

“I wish none of this had ever happened.”
“So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”