Are we really apathetic? Definitely not.

Much of the editorial energy expended in this newspaper during the past 117 years of its existence has been to inform readers and encourage them to take action. If we give ink to pushing people to action, we must also acknowledge that much of what we write about is, indeed, about people trying to make a difference and speaking out in their communities.

It is easy to find dozens of instances where people band together to protest, attend meetings, launch campaigns or just make up their minds to accomplish something. In many cases, people are unstoppable, even if the work at hand can sometimes seem impractical or the task too daunting to even attempt.

We have grown accustomed to being told that public apathy has never had such a stronghold, but such beliefs fly in the face of our superhuman efforts for such things as raising funds to fight cancer, our participation in marathons, our presence in the thousands at various festivals and events and our response to the plight of others in crisis, such as the earthquake in Haiti earlier this year.

The likely answer to this conundrum is that we have given up on the things which seem beyond our power to change. Why waste our time on changing the government's attitude on the long-form census when your neighbour is raising funds for the new playground down the street?

Perhaps it is time to realize that we are powerful enough to be directing some of our energy to other issues and causes that need our attention.

With a municipal election looming, perhaps some of us should be considering devoting our time bringing new skills to the municipal table. Even if we are not candidate material, we could encourage someone we trust to step forward and we could put our support firmly in place and work to help him or her with a campaign.

We could form environmental activist groups and with little effort, quadruple the clearly-inadequate education efforts currently in place to encourage people to recycle and divert waste from our landfills.

We could write a letter to our MP, our MPP or government leaders when we think bad decisions are about to be made, instead of just complaining to those around us.

We could volunteer for our municipalities or horticultural groups maintaining our parks and make them better. A few hours per week would greatly ease the burden on volunteers. We could form such groups in places that need them and engender community pride by enrolling others to plant flowers and trees in neighbourhoods, parks and other public places.

In addition to walking, running, collecting pledges, shaving our heads, going door-to-door etc. to fight cancer, we could form community groups to increase awareness of cancer risks and help people become more educated consumers on all levels.

Now that we know for sure that exercise helps fight disease, stress and poor health, we could launch community-wide campaigns to inspire everyone to get some form of exercise daily.  We could start with one weeknight per week when everyone turns off televisions and computers and goes out for a walk, a run or a bike ride.

We could each pledge to shop three times per week in a local business.
But talk and even words, sometimes, are cheap. There must be action.
As we head into the fall, perhaps we can each look to starting our own new season, where we are not afraid to tackle the big stuff.

L.S.