Frontlines

We have a lot of problems. The whole system is going sideways. The town is struggling. The economy, health care, and the costs of living are all putting more and more stress on everybody. As one of the four physicians left standing in town George felt a lot of responsibility to try and keep things going. There is only so much tweaking of a collapsing system that you can do and he was wearing down. There weren’t enough docs left to cover the core services let alone provide time for rest or getting away. Things needed to change fundamentally. Maybe after his clinic was over he would take a walk through the cedars that the town was named after and see if he could centre himself. The next patient was Mrs Jones. She was always a tough patient; a heart sink patient, if there ever was one.

Just need to keep going, he thought.

…

It was Tuesday and the committee was back at the Clay Pigeon. Almost everyone that had met last week was able to make it, with the exception of Amy. Before the meeting, Pat offered them a tray of day-old muffins.

“Normally I would sell these at half price,” he said, colour flushing to face. “But I just wanted to show my support in some way. What you’re doing here is…Well it’s quite admirable and I’m very happy to host you. Oh, and there’s almonds in these. I just want to be mindful of folks with allergies.”

As he returned to the counter, Carmen hastily scooped up a muffin and the others followed suit. She spoke first, telling the others about what she saw in the forest.

“Oh, I know what you’re talking about!” Aaron replied.  “I think my coworker was writing a piece for the newspaper on this. At least, I heard her talking about it. Let me send her a quick message and see what she says.”

“That’s great, thank you Aaron,” George said. “Well, Carmen, what do you think we should do about this?”

Carmen shifted in her seat , shrugging her shoulders. She looked over at Macy with widened eyes. “Uh, well, what do you think we can do?”

“We could protest.” Macy said, nonchalantly.

Protest? Carmen thought. What good will that do?

“Aren’t those dangerous?” Carmen asked. “I’ve never heard of one happening here.”

“I don’t believe one ever has.” Sarah replied, brushing muffin crumbs off her shirt. “At least, not in the forty or so years that I’ve lived here. I think it would make quite the spectacle, to say the least. But, then again, I know next to nothing about how these things happen.”

“Well, it won’t be dangerous, I’ve been involved in a few back in my day,” George said. “And it’s rather simple, we spread the word to the people we can trust. Then maybe make some signs and just let the people know that things like tree clearing won’t go unnoticed. We can start by the old fountain and make our way through the town to the city hall. We’ll just make a small commotion, just to have our voices heard.”

“She replied!” Aaron interrupted. “The clearing is set to happen on the seventeenth.”

“I think we should meet before that day then,” Macy said. “Maybe like a week before? We could do it on Sunday, maybe, though I think it’s supposed to rain.”

“I think that would work the best,” George replied. “Does everyone agree?” He asked, looking around the room.

Without opposition, the date was set.

“Wonderful,” George said. “Now we just need someone to volunteer to bring the coffee.”

…

On the day of the protest, George was the first to show up to the fountain. He was feeling a lot more positive about how things were going. Realistically, nothing had actually happened yet as far as making actual changes but he was hopeful that collective energy would build. It was so heartening to be working with some of the youth in the community to move forward together.

Carmen and Macy arrived together with Macy’s uncle, who dropped off some iced coffee for everyone.

“Pat insisted I bring a box of donuts,” Pete said, placing the box on the rim of the dried up fountain. “‘Trying a new recipe’ Pat said. So we’re the guinea pigs, I guess. Try if you dare.”

“So… Do we just stand here?” Macy asked.

“Well, we’re pretty early, so let’s just wait for others to join and we can start the march,”

George said, eagerly grabbing a honey glaze. “It will only take us about an hour to walk down Main, and traffic should be minimal on a Sunday so we needn’t worry about that too much.”

Carmen and Macy shared glances. Their nervous excitement began to build as more people began showing up. After half an hour, twenty-six people had arrived and the sky began to drizzle.

As they walked down the Main Street of Cedar Grove, they were met with a colourful round of looks from spectators. It would be untrue to say that the reception they received was entirely positive, but they managed to recruit a few passersby along the way. Overall, there were only about thirty people who marched through Cedar Grove on that day. If nothing else, it was a start. They received more scrutiny than they did support, but success was not always measured in numbers.

As they neared their destination, water had begun to pour from the sky. It had only been a couple hours since they first gathered at the fountain, but Carmen felt like the entire event had gone by in the blink of an eye.

Then, as if out of the abyss, one of the reporters from the local station walked up to the group. Winning the luck of the draw, Carmen was singled out and put on the spot in front of a camera. With no time to object, and her energy building from the chaos around her, she agreed to speak.

“Hi, this is Julie from Channel 5 News, and we’re speaking with one of the youth from this climate march trying to stop the logging in Coombs Forest. Can you tell me your name and how old you are?” The reporter asked.

“Yeah, uh, I’m Carmen,” she began, trying to gain her composure as rain dripped down her face. “And I’m sixteen.”

“It’s great to see youth getting off the sidelines, especially at events like this. Now, Carmen, can you tell me why you’re doing this? Was this the turnout you expected? And why march through the streets now?”

“Well,” she began. “I mean, we were hoping for a few more people but to answer your question, why not now? Is there a better time, or should we wait until things get worse? The earth is scorching and this is the first rain we’ve received in weeks. No one’s allowed to know their own fate; the answers can’t be found in the bottom of your teacup, or in the palm of someone’s hand. We can turn the trees to ash and leave the rest up to the Gods, or we can do what we can with our time to make the world easier for the ones who come after us. We don’t own this world, but we own the responsibility for it. If I can empower just one other person during my time, I know I will have succeeded.”