I’ve been gone for a little while, took a little break, been busy with the kids and trying to get some serious R & R in as well. It’s summer, time to let my hair down and relax or so I’m trying. I chose not to write because I needed a break from everything, but something caught my eye today – headlines in the paper:
“Mounties deny allegations in high-profile harassment lawsuit”
The Mounties have issued a sweeping denial in a high-profile sexual harassment suit by a B.C. member whose allegations prompted other women to come forward with their own claims of abuse.
Read more: province newspaper
Cpl. Catherine Gailliford at one time had a high-profile job with the RCMP as she was the media liaison officer during the highly public Air India case and at some point everything spiralled out of control and now claims that she was sexually harassed for decades on the job. She filed a lawsuit and now the RCMP have filed a denial and claims that she is an alcoholic who refused treatment and had a relationship with one of the men she is accusing of sexually harassing her. Catherine has prompted many more woman to come forward against the male brass RCMP. The truth will be fought out in court and just maybe we will never know the truth. All too often I read about police abuse or harassment these days and it seems to me that the incidents are happening more and more. Maybe these incidents aren’t happening more, maybe just reported more. We really don’t know but one thing for sure, there is a tremendous stress involved with policing today and alcohol abuse is a real factor amongst officers, women and men. Divorce rate is extremely high in the police force and police officers seem to only have other police officers as friends. Throw in alcohol, add woman and men who find themselves in highly pressurized situations at work and at home and trouble brews. Exactly who is wrong or who is right is a subject of many debates around the kitchen table, but one thing for sure is there seems to be a lack of respect amongst people in general these days and certainly from all the stories I’ve read and heard the respect between men and woman is gone as well. Respecting one another, respecting each others’ boundaries, being kind and checking one’s ego at the door would go a long way in this society. Like Aretha says – R-E-S-P-E-C-T – find out what it means to me!
This past Canada Day weekend we spent the weekend at our family cabin in Manning park. It was just me the boys and my mother-in-law as my husband had to work. A friend of the family was already up at the cabin with his son and daughter and decided to mow the lawn. As you can imagine the grass is strong mixed with mountain weeds and very high. The lawnmower was set to high and he could only mow at a very slow pace. He realized he ran over something and when he took a closer look, he found four little bunny rabbits all huddled together in a small little burrow below the grass. They were hidden from the elements and predators below the grass. Fortunately the mower was set high so the blade didn’t hit most of them but one did get a little skinned and had a bleeding cut. He picked the bunnies up and placed them in a box and continued to mow the lawn. We arrived later that evening and he showed me these little cuties all huddled in the box and he had the box placed outside on the deck. The deck is not covered and the little bunnies were completely exposed to the elements. I said “what are you going to do with these little guys?” He says “leave them here until morning!” No, no you can’t do that as they are exposed to predators likes owls etc, so stupid me grabs the box and takes them inside where I informed the kids not to touch them as I don’t want the smell of humans on the babies in case human smell will cause the mother to reject her babies. Once inside the kids crowded around the box and were completely amazed by these little creatures. I left the box in a warm and quiet spot for the night. The next day I researched the internet to find out exactly what to do in case I had to intervene. I quickly figured out that I should have strategically placed the box back outside the night before where the mother had been seen because mother rabbits only feed once a day in the wild and they only do so at night so predators don’t see where her babies are located. If I was to intervene I had to have a rich formula that can be found at some pet stores as you can not give them regular milk because the milk will hurt them. It became obvious to me that I could not intervene as I had no special formula and I was at least 100 miles from the nearest pet store and even then it’s possible that this pet store didn’t carry the formula. The babies best chance was their mother, so outside we took the box. We placed the babies behind the wood shed and placed the box upright facing into the woodshed so no predator could see them and hopefully the mother would come and get her babies as she has been seen many times hiding out under the woodshed. I couldn’t just leave the babies, I checked a few times during the day and they just sat huddled all day. I couldn’t help thinking that I just signed their death warrant but my friend Lou kept reassuring me that mother nature had to run its course. I knew mamma was their best chance, so we left the babies out there overnight hoping that the mother would come and get them for their night feeding. The next morning the first thing I did was go outside to check on the babies and they were gone, did mamma get them or some kind of predator? I walked away thinking for the best – mamma got them and then I spotted two of the babies. Mamma had placed the babies in the grass in such a way that you could not see them from above, you had to look really close to see them. Obviously the other two were somewhere out in the grass, I checked on the spots a few times during the day and the babies just lied there bunkered down waiting for momma to arrive to feed them and hopefully take them to another safer spot. It was a small miracle as I was sure those babies would not last the night. Really goes to prove that mother knows best!
The Art of Silence in a Noisy World 