by Christine McHale

It is 2:38 am, Wednesday. Why am I writing this now? Because an idea has gotten itself stuck in my head and if I don't write this down I will spend the rest of the night not sleeping.

I am usually a woman of few words. There, I said it. Yes, all you gentlemen reading this can now pick yourselves up off the floor and sit back down. The rest of this are all those "few words" coming out at this hour.

Earlier I heard one of our sources say that rumor has it that the web designers of CaledoniaWakeUpCall must be filthy rich. I had to laugh at that statement. First we shower regularly, so the filthy descriptive can be dropped. As for the rich part – I WISH! No, we're just ordinary, regular folk, like most of you out there in Caledonia and elsewhere who have taken time out from your busy lives to contribute to and read our web site.

I had to ask myself why would some folks have the perception that we are filthy rich, or something akin to that level of person? I believe it is because the average person believes that only those who are powerful, or well moneyed, or well connected, or all of these, can accomplish what we have through CaledoniaWakeUpCall.

The truth is that any average person, a.k.a. the "little people", can accomplish this. What's the secret you ask? Believing in yourself. Rich, powerful, well connected people do indeed sometimes accomplish great things, but not necessarily because of their wealth or power or through their connections. To be sure, these things do help, but these people accomplish great things because they believe in themselves. Often, these people get to their positions of power and wealth and have the connections they do because they first believed in themselves.

We have all read or heard stories of modern day heroes. You know, the person who pulls another human from a burning vehicle, or rescues someone from a burning house, or digs through mud or snow, or jumps into the water to pull a human to safety. I do not recall that these "heroes" were rich, powerful or had great and wonderful connections. Mostly, they are average, "little people" who put aside fears or that urge to look the other way and believed they not only could help, but had to help. When interviewed, they don't even see themselves as heroes, but rather, as someone who saw a fellow human being in need and helped.

We have police, firemen, emergency rescue people, and even our armed forces people who do what they do because they believe in themselves and because they believe that self-sacrifice to help another human being, or to fight for what they believe in will make our country and our world a better place for all of us.

It is much easier to just look the other way. Been there, done that! The problem is each time you look the other way you have to turn away from what you should be looking at. And each time you turn away you take another step in a circle. At some point you find you have completed your circle and are now back where you started from, only that things are not the same as they were at the beginning of the circle when you first started to look the other way. Things have changed, and much more often than not, for the worse.

Someone in history once said that all it takes for evil to flourish is for men (and women) of good nature to do NOTHING. Webster's defines good nature as, "the readiness to take trouble to help others." There is no mention or hint that these men and women are rich, are powerful, have great, important influential connections. It simply says men and women of goodwill. Men and women like you, my husband and I, who when we believe in ourselves, come to the conclusion that the status quo is not good enough anymore, that things have to change, and when we finally decide to believe in ourselves that we discover we do indeed have the courage and strength and tenacity to do something about it. We decide we won't back down, give in, be silenced, and basically just go away and quit pestering those who are in power, and who are leaders over us. After all, we do in fact get the leadership we deserve, and by virtue of their leadership, the kind of society we deserve.

The reality is that for all those who choose to look the other way, there are those who choose to change things to suit themselves. If the "little people" look the other way, then those over us will change society, our precious democracy and the freedoms we all enjoy within this democracy to suit themselves. This is why looking the other way is not an option. Not anymore.

Neither my husband nor I could have accomplished what we have so far without your valuable and gracious help. You have been our eyes and ears and through us, your voice

has been heard across Canada. When the mainstream media silenced you simply because they looked the other way to other things, all of us, you and us, stepped up to bat and kept your voice alive.

No doubt, there have been those who have attacked us, but the greater voice has been from those who have helped us, and in so doing, have helped themselves to win a better neighborhood, a better country, a better world. We have heard from residents and non-residents of Caledonia, from private people and public people, from police officers currently in active service and those who have retired, and they see the value of what is being accomplished.

This has not been an easy battle and it won't get easier any time soon. Nothing good and worthwhile ever seems easy. Why? Because people appreciate more what they have to fight for. No one likes the fight, but the gains are worth it.

Freedom itself does not come freely. It has to be fought for, fought over, and guarded always. It is precious and if not protected, is fleeting.

Yes, there are those who are rich, powerful and have great and influential connections, but there are far, far more of us "little people". A thousand little voices ring out much louder than one or two loud voices. Refuse to give in, to be silenced by intimidation and fear, and you will have begun something that over time you will be proud to proclaim, "we did this and we can now live in a better society because of it".