TILLSONBURG NEWS (Ontario) 11 January 06 The importance of experience (Ross Andrews)
Politics is on our minds, with the election coming in a couple of weeks. Maybe a lot of us try to ignore it, convinced we can't believe anything politicians say, or that it makes no difference to us personally.
Young people in Ontario have been given a chance to learn more about how laws are proposed, and enacted. The initiative came from a reporter who enlisted school teachers to help.
It was encouraging to see that civics is still taught in school. Too many people have very little understanding of the framework of government set forth in the constitution, and embroidered on by unwritten custom.
Students were challenged to create five private members' bills that might be workable. They came up with 106 ideas that were studied by an all-party group of politicians.
One class suggested lowering the age limit for driving to 10. They put one condition on the licensing of kids. Cars would be made smaller.
Not to ridicule their thinking, their proposals show why experience is pretty important in creating laws. Have they considered that trucks share the highways?
One suggestion that caught my eye was to pass a law to protect the habitat of the five line skink.
We've become aware of these little jewels at our cottage. The skink is the only true lizard in Ontario, according to our reptile guide.
Shaped like a miniature alligator, the skink loves warmth. One took up residence under the front step which was built of flat stones, no mortar. We enjoyed watching it sun bathe, its tail shining iridescent blue.
The younger the specimen, the brighter the tail. There is a good reason for that. Anything that might consider the skink edible will be attracted to that gleaming appendage. If you try to pick up a skink by the tail you'll be surprised to find that tail is all you've got, and it wriggles energetically to keep you occupied while the rest of the creature scampers to safety.
Maybe nature is showing the importance of experience here. A skink that lives long enough has a much subdued colour. That gives it the advantage of camouflage.
A pair of hawks live near the cottage. We haven't located their nest, but they inform us by voice and action that we are interlopers in certain areas of the premises.
Hawks must benefit by experience. Yesterday Martha noticed a cooper's hawk perched in the maple in our east yard here in Straffordville. Before I could stand and sneak a peak at it through the window, it dropped to the ground and vanished. I looked out the south window. There was the bird, perched on a branch of the sprawling juniper just outside the glass. It wasn't on top of the shrub, it was right down under the canopy where we often watch a rabbit, a squirrel, or several chickadees and juncos, sparrows and nuthatches foraging.
Clearly the hawk knows where to look for a snack.
This hawk was wearing a band on one leg but I couldn't get near enough to try to read anything that might be printed on it.
One day we were watching our resident skink enjoying the sun when a hawk dropped from the sky, picked up the little reptile in its taloned foot, and took it to the large rock in the centre of the lawn. There it daintily divided the skink into bite-sized bits and devoured them.
We soon found out that wasn't the only skink sharing our cottage location. A smaller one appeared from under the building and lolled in the sun on the concrete patio.
Given our limited experience with skinks, I'm inclined to believe they don't need a protective law. Like raccoons and pigeons, they are quite willing to live among humans.
The laws of nature put the skink in as much danger in a wilderness as it is on a front stoop.
The importance of experience