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The Citizen, 2016-04-07, Page 5Other Views Stupid is as stupid does In politics, stupidity is not a handicap. — Napoleon Well, we didn't need The Little Emperor to tell us that. As I type, the World Series of Political Stupidity is unravelling down south where a bigot and a buffoon mud -wrestle for the Republican nomination. But the true horror is not that there are trolls in the world like Trump and Cruz — what's really frightening is...they have followers. Millions of them, apparently. Actual adults with functioning brains and unparalleled access to information have decided en masse to pledge fealty to creatures unfit to be hall monitors in public school. Where does all this stupid come from? Not to worry. America sits on a bedrock of dumbness both wide and deep. Consider a news story out of Woodland, North Carolina, where town council recently held a hearing into a proposed solar -panel farm. An adjacent property owner protested bitterly, explaining that his plants and trees would die because the solar panels "would suck up all the energy from the sun". The property owner's wife, a self -described `retired science teacher' explained that solar panels "prevent photosynthesis" — and also cause cancer. You think that's dumb? Woodland town council listened to the complaint — and voted down the solar panels. Now, that's dumb. Speaking of which, don't try to drive over the bridge into Paoli, Indiana for the next few weeks. It's out. That'll happen when a truck carrying 35 tons of water tries to cross a bridge with a six-ton limit. Police asked the trucker if she didn't see the six-ton limit sign. Waal, yes she did, but she wasn't sure how `tons' translated into `pounds'. About the time the truck was taking out the bridge, a chap in Pensacola Florida was doing the same thing to two small businesses in a strip mall — with his car. He drove right through a tax service firm and a casket company, leaving a wave of destruction that one observer said "looked like a bomb went off'. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 2016. PAGE 5. Fortunately no one was injured — including the driver who explained serenely that he had been trying to "travel through time". And spare a kind thought for Jasper Harrison of Edgewater, Florida. He was tending his clandestine marijuana patch when he heard the menacing whirr of a helicopter overhead. The jig is up, thought Jasper, the Nares have found me. Unwilling to walk on the wild side any longer he picked up the phone and dialed 911. Regrettably for Jasper, the helicopter didn't belong to the feds. It was doing traffic reports for a local radio station, but the operator notified police and Jasper was busted for having a grow -op. You thought stupidity stopped at the border? Meet Kyle Blair of Surrey, BC. Kyle is a lad with attitude. Recently he took exception to a motorist at a stoplight and tried to haul him out of his car. Bad choice. The driver was kinda big and he wasn't alone. There was another rather imposing gentlemen in the passenger seat. And they were both undercover cops on a stakeout. Say what you want about stupidity, it's an equal opportunity employer. The spirit of the statues survives The Town of Goderich recently found itself paying out a $15,000 deductible (part of a $68,000 settlement) for a woman who had touched an inukshuk at the Goderich beach and somehow fractured her hip and scraped herself. The inuksuit were stone statues that some say popped up on the shores of Lake Huron by Goderich shortly after the town began recovering from the tornado. Some were elaborate with heavy rocks stacked to stay put while others were simply put together. The only common factor is that they were built by people, not by town employees or anyone involved with it. Regardless, Goderich Town Council decided to remove the inuksuit for fear that they may face more legal action. The incident highlights one of my pet peeves about the legal system — the fact that people can do something they shouldn't have done in the first place and then proceed to sue when it goes wrong. It happens more often than you think People who host house parties are now responsible if their guests decide to drive drunk, companies are responsible if their workers decide to break the rules and end up getting hurt and, now, people can blame a municipality when hurt doing something they should not have been doing in the first place. I have a few problems with this entire situation, the first of which have people forgotten how to look with their eyes? I don't know about anyone else's parents, but mine had several mantras that were embroiled in my head at a very young age through repetition to deter the kind of activities that lead to this situation. Whether it was "keep your hands to yourself', "look with your eyes" or, my mother's favourite, "Look. Don't touch," there was no shortage of ways that my parents tried to communicate to me the importance of not touching things. Unfortunately for both my parents and myself, I'm a bit of a klutz, so often times I would end up touching things inadvertently. I don't remember it ever leading to anything bad, but it certainly resulted in my mother Denny { Scott „ Denny's Den repeating "Look. Don't touch" to the point that I could mimic the tone she used perfectly by the time I was eight years old. At a museum? Look. Don't touch. See a cool bug? Look. Don't touch. Dead marine animal on the beach? Look. Don't touch. Regardless of whichever iteration of the "don't put your hands somewhere they don't belong" people have experienced, anyone over the age of 15 really has no excuse for reaching out and touching things. Secondly, we should all know that if we decide to not follow that sage piece of advice (or any rule clearly stated), no one is at fault except us for deciding to ignore sensible suggestions. So, here in the Den, it's safe to say if you reach out and touch something and it falls apart and you fall as a result, it's my opinion, that you are to blame. It isn't the fault of the town that owns the land you happened to be standing on. You have no one to blame but yourself. However, the fact that someone is blaming someone else for their own actions falls short of what really raises my ire about this story. Blaming other people is something I've often fallen prey to myself, just ask my wife. So, yes, it would be hypocritical of myself to sit here and say "shame" for blaming someone else for your problems. I, however, do draw the line at suing other people for doing something downright silly. These kinds of cases create a society in which no one is held personally responsible, and they show children that it's okay not only to blame someone else for their own poor judgement or their own bad actions, but also that they can turn it into a payday of sorts. Cases like this teach people they can always shift responsibility to someone else. We need, as a society, to remember that there are things we should and shouldn't do and, when someone does something they shouldn't do, they should be reprimanded for it and not allowed to pin the blame on someone else. The legal system needs to be built around helping people who have been wronged, not justifying the wrongs people have done and letting them sue people to their heart's content. Fortunately, the story of Goderich and its inuksuit isn't one of all doom and gloom. Groups of Goderich residents have banded together to try and keep the inuksuit a part of Goderich in one way or another. Whether it's sharing stories through Facebook or some people actually offering their front yards (private property) for places for the stone statues to be built, the community has rallied to save the inuksuit in light of the decision of council. Sure, there are plenty of people out there who are taking to Facebook to espouse the same belief I'm presenting here, but there are also people who have decided not to take this lying down. These people realize that Goderich Town Council didn't really have a choice in the matter; they had to pay and they had to take down the inuksuit lest they be sued again by the next person to get injured doing something they shouldn't. These people are talking about how great the inuksuit were, looking for ways to recover that spirit and trying to let people know that, despite this blow to creativity and community spirit, Goderich is still a great place to be. Interested in taking part? Look up the Goderich Inukshuk Preservation group on Facebook. It's a good place to find and share photos and stories about the stone statues that are now missing from the Goderich lakefront. In the end, that kind of attitude won't erase the precedent being set by teaching people they can do something they shouldn't, then sue someone, but it does go a long way to showing that community spirit thrives despite the (in my opinion) misuse of the legal system. Good on you, people of Goderich, for being proactive and finding a way to preserve what once was. Shawn ornal Loughlin Shawn's Sense Giving of themselves This week, The Citizen features two distinct stories about people getting their names in the news for doing the right thing. This is nothing new for The Citizen (and most other community news outlets for that matter, so this doesn't necessarily set The Citizen apart) but I'm sure as a reader these stories are much nicer to read than negative ones. I can assure you that as a writer, they're a lot easier to write as well. This week we have stories about students excelling at their public speaking commitments and young people starting new businesses and, of course, the company for the upcoming season of the Blyth Festival — all good news stories. However, the stories to which I refer are those of Patrick Armstrong and the Bernard family. These are stories about people who are being recognized for their uncompromising commitment to charity, whether it's Armstrong founding a successful charity or the Bernards becoming a charity's poster family for their unrelenting support. In 2009, Armstrong founded the Dave Mounsey Memorial Fund, a charity that placed defibrillators in public buildings all over southwestern Ontario. He founded this organization in honour of his fallen friend Mounsey who worked with Armstrong in the OPP. Next week, he'll accept an award for his work with the charity, that has now placed over 50 of these life-saving machines. In a few weeks, there will be three Fund -placed defibrillators in Blyth: the Blyth Legion, the Emergency Services Training Centre and at Memorial Hall, the Fund's first-ever donation. Bernard and her family are being similarly recognized. After Howard Bernard's unexpected diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease a few years ago, Joan, Howard's wife, his daughters, grandchildren and numerous family members have committed themselves to raising money for the Alzheimer's Society of Huron year after year through its annual walk event. Howard and his family became involved with the society very early in his diagnosis and they were immediately struck with all the organization does, whether it be for Howard himself, or Joan and their children, the society has proven itself a member of their team and the family cannot say enough good things about the work the society does. So after raising thousands of dollars for the society, the Bernard family will be this year's honorary family because, according to one organizer, they completely embody the full family effort it takes to appropriately handle an Alzheimer's diagnosis. It's all hands on deck with the Bernard family. These people understand that life isn't all about them — they see there's a higher purpose and that sometimes we need the help of others. This is the continuation of the fine tradition of volunteerism in Huron County and many communities beyond, where people understand that while they may not be getting paid for their time, they realize there may not be anything more important they could be doing with their time, or with their money. Just last month a number of locals were honoured with volunteer services awards. Whether they spent their time with the Blyth Festival or with the local Lions Club, it's these people that keep our communities spinning We need to make sure we cherish those who give of themselves, not wear them out to the point they no longer find it fulfilling.