Citizen Gifts - Reclaiming Community

What do you do as you watch your community literally being washed away? We saw some of it in New Orleans, or recently with Hurricane Sandy, but no place had to confront such a complete challenge as that faced by the good people of Holland. Their great opponent was the ocean - 24/7 - that threatened to take all their accomplishments and put them underwater – for good.When it was all said and done, the Dutch had accomplished a miracle that is still ongoing. It wasn’t just their government or the bureaucracy, but citizens themselves who supported measures that ultimately reclaimed their country for their kids and for the future. What else would you call it when, over the course of almost a century, the people of Holland have added almost three-quarters of a million acres of land to their country, enlarging its area by over 15%, and providing homes, farms, and communities to over half a million people? This wasn’t just a sign of what one country could do, but was a testimony to the human race and citizenship when it all starts pulling in the same direction.From its beginning Holland had large parts of its surface below sea level. The North Sea hammered repeatedly at its shores and marshes were everywhere. For a long period of time, sand dunes were all that protected its people from the ravages of the sea. Initially the Dutch built on elevated lands, but always they were surrounded, and at times inundated, with water. Then they got the idea of constructing sea walls of clay mixed with straw and as a people worked together to repair them each spring. They had to build ramps to their attics to save their cattle during the floods of winter. Despite their makeshift dikes, they often ended up losing the battle to the sea.Over time the people evolved, developing better methods of restraining the water. But they had to watch and do it together. Their biggest obstacle was a tidal gulf that penetrated 140 kilometres into the land and was some 50 kilometres wide. In a daring venture, they gathered together and agreed to construct a dam across the entire mouth of the gulf. They knew the costs and the taxes that would be levied, but this was their homeland they were talking about and no cost seemed too high. The worked with their Parliament and eventually the Act for Enclosure was passed.Somehow they had to span the vast gap across the gulf.  The work proved to be enormous – dikes, pumping stations, sluices, drainage ditches, locks, inland ports for navigation, trees planted to combat soil erosion, roads, bridges, rural and urban housing. As the gap narrowed between the two shores, the force of water increased. But despite numerous failures and setbacks, land was being reclaimed. The birds were returning and homes being built. Finally it was spanned, only to be undone during World War Two as the Nazis bombed the dikes. Again the Dutch pitched in together, eventually turning Holland into one of the great citizen accomplishments in the world. Anyone traveling through that region comes away with the impression that humans can accomplish anything when they take on that kind of joint cooperation.Canada was never so challenged, but we have history of almost unbelievable accomplishments – a ribbon of rail, railway tunnels that actually spiral through mountains, remarkably well-constructed saltwater ports, a TransCanada highway, the development of the north, a parliamentary model that has been admired globally,  the protection of parks and wildlife, a world-ranking health system, the invention of peacekeeping, a professional diplomatic service that once was the envy of the world. These are ours, developed largely by those that preceded us and carved out of a rustic land.We didn’t all band together and construct dikes, but we permitted ourselves to be taxed in order to accomplish together what we couldn’t individually. We did labour and consult together in our communities, building places that our kids could play, learn and be safe in. Our great citizens didn’t leap tall buildings in a single bound, but they did build them over decades. They toiled, bled, and they possessed the superpowers of finding consensus, listening, and caring for the marginalized. Our community heroes were, and are, ordinary people who understood that despite the challenges of their own personal lives, their public life, together, was the greatest accomplishment of their age. These are the real giants and heroes of Canada, not the politicians, the captains of industry, or the wealthy, and their very presence among us reminds us that great exploits are yet possible for us.To truly build is to cooperate; to bridge the span is to stretch together; to energize a nation is to draw inspiration from one another in the grand enterprise of joint citizenship. If indeed we are defined by the communities we build, we are also bracketed by the communities we allow to decline. Entire swaths of public space are being flooded by a capitalism gone awry, a politics without substance, and a citizenry without cohesion. We can never reclaim that public space until we are ready to act in concert. We must determine how to bridge the gap between our past and our future through a collective effort energized by our commitment to our communities. Perhaps our greatest gift to one another is to realize we must reclaim those places where we live by winning back our right to fight for them.