We have all heard of the angry spouse who argues by dredging up everything but the kitchen sink. Or the stranger you get to talking with, at the A&W or the bar, who turns out to have a long list of grievances, theories, and pet peeves against the government.
That’s normal, but when I write to my Member of Parliament, my senator, or my congress critter, I don’t want to be quite that normal. Easy to rant, easy to ramble, but I think it’s polite to be short and clear. I want my letters to be calm and useful.
I seldom write to my MP. One day I visited, only to be amazed that his assistant knew my name, and not from a file. I complimented him for remembering, and that’s when I learned: I stood out because I avoided the easy writing pitfalls.
But for my third-to-last letter, I was, er, miffed. I confess I wasn’t too even-handed about those “damn Yankees” (link to songs) blaming us for our wildfires. Not when they have used a broad ax to cut their researchers, scientists and weather monitors, DOGE style. Note: I subscribe to Inside Higher Ed, (a US e-publication) and it is amazing to me how little the US public know about the cuts. The cuts included the guys who would normally track parasites on lettuce, leaving the CDC in Atlanta blind and helpless this month until some time after the casualty figures rose.
… Update: Tonight I learn that the CDC is still blind, as Belle of the Ranch enumerates relevant specific cuts.
… Vocabulary: Belle mentions “Chesterton’s fence.” Here is a training cartoon about the “fence.”
My second-to-last letter, as somewhat of an apology, was merely to pass on a comprehensive news article from the British Broadcasting Corporation web page about the Canada-US wildfire situation.
My last letter is normal for me, more light-hearted than bureaucratic, as neither my MP nor his assistant see themselves as being bureaucrats—“not that there’s anything wrong with it.” (Seinfeld) I thought I would show it, as just one example, out of many ways to write to one’s representative, anywhere in North America.
At the bottom I usually include my address so my politician is assured that I am his constituent. At the top, the salutation is plain because I don’t know or remember any official titles of various representatives, titles that would be important on a nameplate in the Capital Building, like you see during formal hearings on Youtube, but less important when I encounter my representative at a county fair or in his office…. Folks old enough to remember certain wars may chuckle because I copy the salutation from a draft notice.
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July 19, 2026
Greetings,
A man in Belfast this week was blogging about the downsides of Data Centres.
As you know, there are lots of news stories about data centres causing distress from things like hogging a region’s water, raising local electricity prices, making a humming sound for blocks around and affecting property values.
I commented to him that the newspapers only cover “bad” data centres because they are news. Maybe there are “good” non-newsworthy data centres.
New York State has recently declared a one year moratorium on data centres so they can investigate. I told the blogger about NY, and gave him a suggestion, rather like I would give to you.
My suggestion to you:
is that at the federal level, here in Canada, we research —let’s keep our young interns busy!— to keep a file to discover what, where and why certain data centres are “better or worse.” Or “worse and worser.” With a mission to go back five years, before the demands of AI, we might discover new facts, new ways to cope, and boldly avoid a moratorium.
Best regards,
Sean Crawford
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Calgary,
July,
2026
Footnote for US readers: (in case anyone starts counting my age on their fingers)
What?
Me a draft dodger?
“Not that there’s anything wrong with it,” since a president issued an amnesty.
My own views are a tad too personal to tell, but if you care to know, they are in the novel and movie version Gardens of Stone, starring Angelica Houston and James Caan. I think the movie was ignored when it came out because people thought it took place in Vietnam, and nobody wanted to go there. In fact, the story takes place entirely in Washington; the “garden” is a (there’s more than one) national cemetery maintained by the US army.
God bless America.
