Five sisters

Not too far away from my home, logging companies have plans to log the headwaters and mid-reaches of several small creeks. According to laws, they must do a survey to determine if the creeks and rills are fish-bearing. If there are sections of the creeks that don’t have fish, dry up in summer or are too steep for fish to pass, they can run their machinery right to the edge of the streambed.

Public servants in the forestry departments are, they say, only allowed to enforce the rules that presently exist or after damage has been done and documented. One of them told me that if the loggers follow the rules – even if to the detriment of people’s water wells and to fish living downstream – “we can’t do anything about that.”

Even if creeks and water tables are getting destroyed but the rules are being followed, I was told that “we are not allowed to express our moral or ethical opinions. If we do, we will lose our jobs.”

“Can’t you talk to others informally over coffee at meetings of your peers?” I asked. Same answer. How then can failures in a system be addressed?

We all know what happens when individuals stand up against injustice or corruption in public institutions. In the U.S., Adam Kinzinger, Peter Meijer and Liz Cheney faced a lot of backlash for speaking up against the status quo. In Canada, Jody Wilson-Raybolt and Jane Philpott also took a public stand with pretty strong consequences.

I wonder if the story of Zelophehad’s daughters can offer us a better way.

Petitioning the throne

In Numbers 27, five sisters had no brothers and thus no heirs to their family name and property. They came to Moses. “It’s not fair!” said the five. Moses took the matter to God. (I think he was miffed at their effrontery, but perhaps I read too much into the missing parts of the story.) The result? God said to amend the law because the five daughters’ situation wasn’t covered.

I admire and support public advocacy and educational groups which seek to address social justice issues by communal action. I also think, however, that if individual people do not stand up for what is right, if they don’t share their moral or ethical concerns publically or behind the scenes with the powers of this world, if they just follow the rules, then the work of earth care, social welfare, political justice and peace-making will fail.

Perhaps as individuals we need to be nudged, prodded, urged . . . maybe we all need to be dragged, kicking and screaming if necessary, before various “thrones” to stand up with five widowed sisters for the life of a watershed. Give me more folks like Amos, an ordinary shepherd and “dresser” of sycamore trees, who stood up and spoke in unpolished Hebrew before the religious establishment and the king. I suspect his life was not so easy afterward, but “blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.” They may lose their jobs, but there are still sheep to tend somewhere for low wages and a clear conscience.

Curt wrote about parts of a creek – his boyhood adventure ground – that are now confined to underground culverts (“Eulogy for a Creek,” April 19, 2021).

See John Terpstra’s Daylighting Chedoke: Exploring Hamilton’s Hidden Creek for an example of what happened to a local Hamilton-area creek over the years.