Our Benevolent Society
She's 74 years of age. She lives alone, with the company of a little dog. She is independent and she is the beneficiary of a sturdy mind. She has faced incidents that infuriate most home owners many years younger than she is, who are capable of fending for themselves, have the physical strength and endurance - if not the mental alertness she exhibited - to shovel themselves out of the snow-and-ice fort that snow plough operators seem to enjoy leaving in peoples' driveways, clearing off roadways.
She is accused of having intimidated a burly plough operator last winter, outside her Orillia home. All five feet, one hundred pounds of her. Oh wait: she's a member in good standing of the Raging Grannies, and that clears everything up. She is accustomed to speaking her mind, to addressing the issues of injustice and unfairness. And it is decidedly unfair that home owners - let alone 74-year-old home owners must face the hardship of clearing their blocked driveways in winter.
Driveways they have already cleared, only to have municipally-employed plough operators shove icy blocks and mounds of snow right into those previously-cleared driveways. Home owners toss their driveway snow onto their own property; what passes for lawns in summer months. Yet municipalities see it as perfectly acceptable that snow that falls on streets and roadways should be shoved into driveways. There are some municipalities that have been alerted to this, and they equip their operators to handle the issue with sensitivity.
As for Orillia, it's doubtless their way of testing the health care system in the country. Help a home owner have a heart attack, and witness the outcome. Anne Selby, the 74-year-old who refused to move herself out of the way to permit the plough operator to resume shoving snow from the road into neighbours' driveways, until he unblocked her drive before proceeding, was told by an OPP responding officer "You are going to jail". And then proceeded to haul the handcuffed woman to the local police station in a squad car.
She now faces a criminal charge of intimidation. That poor plough operator; assailed by a Raging Granny. The raging grannies reading the newspaper account are fully in accord; their hearts bleed for him. As for Ms. Selby, she says "I'll never forget this. I'll never forget this until the day I die. They have robbed me of eight months of my life, (the time between being charged and having to appear in court to defend herself) which I cannot get back. At 74, I cannot afford that."
Guess she was just spoiled. Her previous pleas to other winter snow-clearing plough drivers to unblock her drive had always succeeded in the plough operators agreeing to clear her driveway after they'd shoved mountains of snow into it. Just her luck to get a (malevolent) job-sensitive driver unwilling to be intimidated by a little old lady, this time around, right?
She is accused of having intimidated a burly plough operator last winter, outside her Orillia home. All five feet, one hundred pounds of her. Oh wait: she's a member in good standing of the Raging Grannies, and that clears everything up. She is accustomed to speaking her mind, to addressing the issues of injustice and unfairness. And it is decidedly unfair that home owners - let alone 74-year-old home owners must face the hardship of clearing their blocked driveways in winter.
Driveways they have already cleared, only to have municipally-employed plough operators shove icy blocks and mounds of snow right into those previously-cleared driveways. Home owners toss their driveway snow onto their own property; what passes for lawns in summer months. Yet municipalities see it as perfectly acceptable that snow that falls on streets and roadways should be shoved into driveways. There are some municipalities that have been alerted to this, and they equip their operators to handle the issue with sensitivity.
As for Orillia, it's doubtless their way of testing the health care system in the country. Help a home owner have a heart attack, and witness the outcome. Anne Selby, the 74-year-old who refused to move herself out of the way to permit the plough operator to resume shoving snow from the road into neighbours' driveways, until he unblocked her drive before proceeding, was told by an OPP responding officer "You are going to jail". And then proceeded to haul the handcuffed woman to the local police station in a squad car.
She now faces a criminal charge of intimidation. That poor plough operator; assailed by a Raging Granny. The raging grannies reading the newspaper account are fully in accord; their hearts bleed for him. As for Ms. Selby, she says "I'll never forget this. I'll never forget this until the day I die. They have robbed me of eight months of my life, (the time between being charged and having to appear in court to defend herself) which I cannot get back. At 74, I cannot afford that."
Guess she was just spoiled. Her previous pleas to other winter snow-clearing plough drivers to unblock her drive had always succeeded in the plough operators agreeing to clear her driveway after they'd shoved mountains of snow into it. Just her luck to get a (malevolent) job-sensitive driver unwilling to be intimidated by a little old lady, this time around, right?
Labels: Social-Cultural Deviations
posted by Pieface @ 5:53 PM
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