You Reap What You Sow

You reap what you sow

Today marks a turning point in the history of Brockport. The Village of Brockport is reaping the results of the last two village elections at tonight’s two meetings, the intermunicipal meeting with the towns of Clarkson and Sweden at 6 PM and the Village Board Meeting at 7 PM.

The two new Trustees supported by the Pro-Brockport group have provided the two critical votes needed to approve the Memorandum of Undestanding to create a \new fire district.

Who would have thunk it?

The story isn’t over. But it has taken some unusual twists and turns. The people of Brockport can gather the signatures needed to force a referendum on the proposed fire district, and there is serious talk about doing just that.

Even the editorial board of the Democrat and Chronicle has encouraged Brockport residents to do just that.

But if there is a referendum, who could have guessed that Trustees Blair, Blackman and Hannan might be on one side of the issue and Pro-Brockport on the other?

But that’s the way it is. It didn’t have to be, but it is.

Today also marks a changing of the guard in this column.

Mother Nature has a way of grabbing us by the throat sometimes and shaking us to wake us up. It’s a good idea to pay attention when Mother Nature does that.

On Friday I got confirmation that on July 21st I had a Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA), or mini-stroke.

So it is definitely time for me to reassess what I am going to do with the rest of my life, however long or short it may be.

For the past year and a half I have spent an inordinate amount of time and effort working to get Brockport on the right track. I have worked like a dog, yet good things hardly ever seem to happen.

The stress just builds and builds and nobody in Brockport seems to be willing to take those small steps that would relieve some of the pressure and allow us to move forward.

David Markham summed it up best in an email earlier this summer.

We're stuck and can't seem to move. We’re like a steam boiler with the heat turn on high and the steam lines closed. The pressure just builds until the pressure relief valve blows.

On July 21st my pressure relief valve blew.

In the battle to save Brockport I have been wounded and carried from the battle field.

Someone else will have to

I will tie up the loose ends, by writing about responses I have received to the FOIL requests I submitted. I owe that to much Leslie Morelli and the other hard working civil service employees who had to spend their time gathering the data for me. But don’t ask me to do any new research.

In Jennifer's Head » Blog Archive » Reaping What You Sow

As most of you know, we’ve been trying our hands at a decent sized garden this year.  The folks at Emergency Seed Bank were kind(or possibly, insane*) enough to send me a sample.  I read through the materials and carefully picked out which seeds to plant in my 110 square feet.  I carefully masked my my very non-green thumb and tended them lovingly and faithfully.  We dispatched the rabbit, but not before he chowed down on almost all the beets and spinach.  Thankfully, the radishes survived his noshing.  I’ve poisoned mice for eating my green bean plants and (hopefully) chopped up a mole with a shovel for eating most of my carrots.  And today, in spite of the heat and drought, I have a healthy crop of parsnips, beautiful heads of cabbage forming, romaine that is over two feet tall (actually going to seed!), and nice chunky tomato vines (the pear tomatoes** are producing like crazy).

This has not been through any particular skill on my part.  It has taken hard work and perseverance, but the harvest will be worth it.

When we sowed the seeds into our garden, we looked upon our work with pleasure.  That very night, the tree to the east of the garden sowed its own seeds on the damp and fertile ground.  As with the seeds we placed intentionally, they took the opportunity to germinate in the nutrient rich soil.  We have had to work diligently to remove these sprouts once they reach a maturity level that displays their true character.  We’ve plucked them out before they have the opportunity to thrive.  If we didn’t, they would rob our crops of nutrients and crowd out their root systems.  We intend to reap the good food that we have sown, not feed opportunistic, worthless trees (most trees are not worthless, those in my garden are).

I was thinking about the current state of the world while working in the garden last night, as I often do.  It exists as something of a buffer or a preparation for things that may come.  So while I carefully patched up a tomato vine where it was damaged by the storm, I thought about the things we cultivate.  I provide good soil and water in the hopes of a successful harvest.  I defend my garden against threats from the local wildlife.  And I pluck out those things I do not wish to reap from my garden.  During this drought, I’ve ceased to water my lawn.  I tell people that if I can’t eat it, I’m not watering it.  And it shows.

We’ve all watched the seeds of entitlement blossom into violence in London.  In the once Great Britain, they have cultivated the things society needs the least.  Those that draw only from the nutrients and life blood of the community without giving anything in return.  They’ve enabled the weeds to overtake the crops by not plucking them out before they became threats.  Instead they’ve taken root and are working to destroy the source of their own sustenance.

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