‘This is my home, part of my soul’

Letter to New Tecumseth Free Press Online from Stephanie MacLellan

New Tecumseth is a beautiful, kind, peaceful place to live. I am proud everyday to call the community of Beeton my home. But what I have witnessed over the last three months has been, honestly, a little heartbreaking.

I have become highly aware, highly concerned and quickly educated in our local environmental issues and the governments that control them. Some may say I’m “green” to all this. But this is my home, part of my soul, my children’s souls and I’m not going to sit back and watch while it’s ignored and consumed by greed and concrete.

At some point common sense and love must prevail. We must ask ourselves why society is constantly in a cycle of rushing and consuming, it never ends.

When I think of Toronto I think of a concrete jungle, lights, cars, buses, multiple traffic lanes, smog, and congestion. When I think of Simcoe County, I think greenspace, and farm fields, livestock, birds signing, fresh air, long and winding country roads. Yet, Toronto has 26.6 per cent of forest cover, while New Tecumseth has 15 per cent forest cover and dropping. How can that be? I feel kind of embarrassed, and confused.

New Tecumseth, we can do better than this. I believe our community can be a proactive one, one that doesn’t have to wait for the terrible side effects of our actions before it acts. Our kids are worth it.  To preserve our gorgeous home proudly, responsibly, together as a community because “it takes a village.”

Imagine the legacy of a healthy, diverse, clean, and united community we could leave behind for our children and grandchildren. Fifteen per cent forest cover is not enough, and we shouldn’t settle for it. We can do better.

We only have one Planet Earth. Protect it, love it, cherish it, because if we let it slip through our fingers, if we get to that crisis point, which I fear the decisions being made are pushing us dangerously close to that crisis point, there may be no turning back. Is that what we want our legacy to be? We are New Tecumseth and we can do better than this. Be bold with your life.