The Long Hot Summer

    Australian weather is something that I am still not used to.  Particularly Melbourne weather, where the phrase "4 seasons in a day" is very common.  For 9 months of the year, the weather borders on a cool spring/ autumn but for 3 months, 3 dry, hot months, it turns the world into something that is so alien to all of my experiences that I cannot even call it a real summer.

It is truly a frightening thing.

    Where I grew up, in the northeastern US, summer means green, lush, humid days.  It means flowers and cookouts and sprinklers.  In Melbourne, summer means dry and hot.  Anything that you have managed to grow for the short spring will die unless you have a water tank and recycled water to douse your plants.   The grass, which is brown and dead, crunches and hurts your feet if you try to walk barefoot.  My flower garden which I planted hopefully this past spring - all dead.  We just don't have enough water from the shower every day to water it all.  I am trying to keep the petunias in front of the house alive because I like the color and it makes it seem more than just a dead yard when you walk by.  It says: someone lives here and cares.

In my whole life I have experienced maybe one or two days of temperatures over 100 degrees.  Over the past 2 months there have been about 7 days that have broken 103 degrees.  Today is another one.  Today is a day of total fire ban - no fires, no welding or machinery that can produce sparks, no barbeques unless they are on a concrete patio and you have water nearby just in case. 

    Which brings us to the fires.  The fires have been burning for weeks and the smoke blows over the city.  When I wake in the morning I can smell it on the wind and I am transported quickly back to my childhood days of campfires at Fourth Lake.  Then I remember where I am and I know that these fires are a very different thing.  

On Black Saturday, the day it got to 117 degrees , the fires swept through an area to the Northeast of the city and killed over 200 people.  They have no idea how much wildlife was lost that day - the estimate is in the millions.  The koala population of Victoria only numbers on the thousands and they were not spared for virtue of being rare and cute.  My husband and I decided that rather than donate to the human cause, we would donate money to the organizations doing animal rescue in the fire affected areas.  Our reasoning is that they would be forgotten.  We are attending other fundraisers so hopefully in the end it will all balance out.

  Whole towns which had stood in beautiful mountain settings for decades were wiped out in one day.  The coroner has bluntly stated that the fires were so hot that there are some bodies that will not be able to be recovered because no trace remains of them.  And still, the fires burn.  Water was moved from one fire threatened reservoir to another and the firefighters still struggle to hold containment lines so that the larger reservoir does not come under threat.

Every day, the fires creep closer to the small piece of land that I purchased in the Warburton Valley last July.  My husband and I watch the maps closely and listen for every fire alert and warning.  The land is vacant, but it is so beautiful, with huge old gum trees and kookabaras which perch on tree limbs and watch you with one eye.  We have already had enough disaster for one year when we discovered that the oldest tree on the property was diseased and had to be taken down after half of it broke away and fell into our neighbor's yard.  It was such a beautiful tree with a wombat hole at the base.  Now it is just a huge trunk without a crown and the wood from the limbs radiates away from the base, most of the pieces so heavy that one strong man cannot even budge them.  The company that did the work for us mulched and took away the leaves and cut the huge limbs into smaller pieces but we still have a lot of work to do and now the fires make us worry that we haven't done enough.  If the fire comes through, the wood will catch and burn.  Unfortunately, our neighbors live there year round, so having a fuel load on our property is not good for them.  So we worry and watch and wait. We have been told to stay away from the area because of the smoke and because if the fire broke the line, we would have no shelter, nowhere to go.  There has not been any significant rain for more than a month and everything is so dry, waiting for one blown ember to come through and catch.

    The valley and town of Warburton is the one place that I have found in this new land that reminds me of home.  When you turn onto the Warburton highway, you enter a lush green world of horse pastures and tall shady trees, gardens and water.  The Yarra river snakes along next to the road and it is truly one of the most beautiful places in the state of Victoria. Huge Mountain Ash trees rise up on the hills that slope down to the banks of the river.  They are the ghost cousins of the Redwood forests, glowing white in the dim light of the gloaming.

  The village of Warburton is one strip of historic shops that backs onto the river.  The area right next to the Yarra is one long park and the town proper is built mostly on the hill above the river.  I am not describing it as well as I could or should, but I knew the first time we drove through that this was where I wanted to escape to on hot summer days.  I wanted my own shady, lush, green piece of land to build a little house for the weekends when the city and concrete were too hot for life.

I didn't realize that the summer, the time when I needed that green escape the most, would be the months that I would have to stay away and worry.  I didn't realize that this landscape was itself a fragile thing.  I didn't realize it could all go up in flames and be destroyed in one day.

What were those first settlers thinking, making their home in a land like this?  I think they were fooled, the same way I was.  So now I wait on pins and needles.  It's another 100+ degree day and the fires above Whitegum Drive burn an area of 250,000 hectares behind the shaky containment lines.  

      "Don't know whether to laugh or cry while the long hot summer just passed me by......"

     

Bill of rights, what bill of rights? Some musings on politics near and far.....

Australia has no bill of rights and the constitution applies only to the behavior and protocols of Parliament.  My husband keeps saying that Victoria (our state) has a bill of rights but when prompted he cannot locate it on the internet.  Apparently, it is a "bill" that was passed that clarifies, in very vague terms, some general freedoms.  To me, that's not a bill of rights.

What we consider to be basic rights in the US are only protected by court precedents.  The police routinely pull over thousands of people a night to give them breathalyzer tests (they set up check points and make everyone stop).  In principle,  it's a great idea because this country has some issues with drunk driving and alcoholism, but in the US wouldn't that be unreasonable search and seizure?  If you fail the test, they impound your car and off you go to jail.  There is no guaranteed freedom of speech or right to public assembly.  They can apply a strict or loose definition of what makes an unlawful demonstration depending on the mood of the police.  I do agree with the very strict gun control laws - guns are extremely regulated and allowed for people who use them for recreation, but only at a gun club and guns cannot be kept in the home.  If you live in a rural area and use the guns for hunting and farming purposes (dingos eat domestic animals, kangaroos must be hunted for meat - they cannot be farmed. ) guns are registered.  It allows sportsmen to have guns, but keeps them out of major circulation, which is exactly how I think it should be in the US (when was the last time the president called on the minutemen to fight the red coats?  not recently... no-one needs to keep a gun under their bed).  

They just sent some guys to prison for sedition - they had stated that they would like to commit some terrorist act but they had no connections to weapons, no plans, no organization, no evidence beyond a few statements.  Isn't that wrong in the US?   Or is that what brought down the late governor of Illinois, (and I wouldn't call selling a senate seat sedition).  Sedition, think about it.  I hate the president! Treason.  Dick Cheyney is the devil and I hope he dies!  Sedition..........  luckily, all of those statements were made in our recent past and better times are ahead, I hope.

In Australia, everyone has to vote - if you don't vote they will find you and fine you.  I'm only a resident, not a citizen, but as a landowner, I had the right and the obligation to vote in my local council elections.  I said to my husband "is this legal?  I'm not a citizen"  "Just do it" he replied " better to vote and they disqualify it than not vote and get the fine".

In the US, people act like they are doing such a great public service by voting.  Voting is not a public service - it is your right as a citizen and that right can actually be taken away from you.  Voting is only one of the things that make a democracy.  Public Service is the other.  I have been thinking a lot about this lately based on conversations I have been having with people and I truly think that public service and the choice to serve is just as important and more pivotal to a democracy than the right to cast a vote.  Stepping up and putting your hat into the public service arena means that you are beyond words and are ready to take action.  We'd still be paying tax on tea if our forefathers had kept it to words.  We have no battles, in the military sense, to fight, but there are so many battles to fight to keep life fair and to make sure that those that do not have much of a voice are heard.  Like therapy, there comes a point when talking to your friends and family is not enough.  If you believe passionately in something and you have the ability to make change, I believe it is your duty in a democracy to stick your neck above the crowd.  This is hard because often you will find that by sticking your neck out it makes a lovely target for all of those people who choose to keep their actions to words.  

It's easy to make someone a target, but the more difficult road comes when you become the target.  

This is a quote from congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, Democrat from Wisconsin, describing what made her stick her neck out: " Achieving health care for all is the reason I got into politics.  It is my goal, my passion, my motivation".

     Both my parents have stuck their necks out numerous times to run for office, participate in political actions, participate in county and state politics and planning boards.  Some people love them for doing this.  Some people, (like the slate company down the street who illegally dump their contaminated water into the Mettowee River and gets upset when my Dad calls the environmental protection agency) would like to see them disappear.

But the one thing that you can never say is that they didn't take part in the great democracy that is the USA - they served, still serve and will probably serve until they can no longer drive through the snowstorm to get to the planning board, until they can no longer be propped up to speak at the council meetings.

Sometimes I feel like I have not done enough, but then I remember that my passions lie with arts education, and I think of the hours spent teaching dance in NYC public schools and teaching design to kids who were told all their lives that the arts were not a path that should or could be taken by someone like them and I realize that I am able to take action and make a difference in my own way.  As for politics, I've gone door to door with my mom and handed out flyers, I've worked at the Washington County fair booth and spoken to more than a few people about the democratic party in Washington County and while I don't think it has even scratched the tip of the iceberg, it was something.  My brother,!! (and if you know the history, you will know why I am so amazed) has even become involved in environmental issues and politics in the El Paso area - working on senatorial campaigns and fighting against the reopening of industrial plants in the El Paso area, (look up ASAARCO, sp? and you'll see what his current battle is).  Is it something in our blood?  Is it being descended from so many colonists?  Who knows, but he's got the bug too and he has found his passion. 

   So when I see people rail against some injustice, or misrepresentation,  I urge them to step up and take part and get involved; actions will always speak louder than words, especially if they have the connections and intelligence to do so.   I have the amazing example of my family, so it is only natural for me to urge people to do more.  I often get a response akin to "I do my part,   I vote" or a look that makes me feel as if I have sprouted another head.   But I still believe that to be part of a democracy, you must do more than vote.  If you rage against the great "them" and "they" it is your duty as citizen to learn that there is no "them" or "they" but only "us" and to immerse yourself in the myriad of grey areas that exist between the left and the right.   We have nothing to fear but fear itself............

Boy, am I missing the US or what?  Parliament and politics down under are just not as interesting.  I'll give it another look and then see how I feel.   But I will never give up my US Passport....never, ever, ever............