Of Coyotes and Common Sense

We have coyote concerns, it seems.

I didn't catch the story on the news, because I was just about asleep on my feet at 10:00 p.pm. and it was all I could do to stay awake for House (having been comatose for most of the previous 48 hours, I slept poorly Monday night), but I saw the teaser several times over the course of the day.

Apparently, there are coyotes afoot in the Metro area.

This is not surprising. Atlanta lies a mere 60 miles south of the foothills of the Appalachian mountain range. What is surprising is that people are surprised. They are also surprised by a deer carcass lying on a suburban thoroughfare. Or a mother raccoon who ravages their garbage nightly. They are surprised when Beavers dam up neighborhood creeks and alligators invade their sparkling chlorinated oases. They are surprised to find venomous snakes in sandboxes and vegetable gardens.

What can we do??? they want to know. They are concerned about their children and their pets, the integrity of their carefully sculpted and impressively expensive landscaping. They worry about their property values.

And who can blame them? When one spends $500,000 on the expansive and sanitary home of their dreams, in an impregnable neighborhood that is manicured, managed and satisfyingly if tenuously urban, one expects not to be discommoded by such creatures.

Never mind that these neighborhoods have been built where once stood forests, farmland, swamps and marshes. Never mind that they have filled in ponds and re-routed streams, never mind that they have pillaged and paved and denuded every square foot of land whereupon a home could possibly stand.

Never mind that those poor creatures were here first.

They are suburbanites and they will prevail!! They WILL have their piece of the pie, they WILL live the American dream, they WILL find their consumer utopia...nature be damned.

Luckily, I, Blog Antagonist, have the answer.

Stop. Building. Shit.

Perhaps I should run for City Council.

Seriously.

Those of you who have lived in Metro Atlanta for any length of time know that it is RIDICULOUS how fast the and how far the urban sprawl has despoiled the once lush and beautiful land.

When I moved here in 1988, there was absolutely nothing on what is now one of the busiest and most nightmarish commercial enclaves in Cobb County. There were only miles and miles of corn crops and kudzu.

When we bought our home in 1996, I had to drive 30 minutes to the procure groceries, gas, and fast food. Now I have all of that at my fingertips, and if it weren't for zoning laws designed to maximize profit and minimize foot traffic, I could walk to almost anything.

There are now four Starbucks within a 5 mile radius of my home. Two Wal-Marts. Three Targets. More restaurants than I could ever manage to patronize. Car washes. Nail salons. Drugstores. Gyms. Daycare Centers.

It's a pretty simple cause and effect equation. And yet....people are puzzled.

You know, I'm not a tree hugger, an environmentalist, an activist or a scientist. I am just one person who depends on this planet and it's resources. But I can see what is happening. I can extrapolate quite easily the consequences of such voracious consumption, such unconscionable polluting, such indiscriminate disposal of our refuse and such heedless displacement of the creatures with whom we must share the earth's bounty. Creatures upon whom, our survival might ultimately depend.

So why are we allowing this to happen? Why do we shake our heads and then go about our business? Why does the sight of a bulldozer or a logging truck not fill us with anger and indignation? Why are we accepting the death of our planet and our species?

I'm starting a campaign. It's the "Stop Building Shit" campaign. Will you join me?

Make a sign and take it to your next City Council meeting. I guarantee it will pique some interest.