Home  >> Stories  >> The Tale Spinner #2018-36

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IN THIS ISSUE

• A faceless man is a hero in this Heroic Stories
• Catherine Nesbitt sends this story of an accident
• Tom Williamson forwards a letter of thanks from a US politician
• Barbara Wear shares a cartoon that I can relate to
• Many young Canadians are becoming activists
• Carol Shoemaker shares a site on Facebook

Barbara Crawford from Maryland writes about

THE FACELESS MAN ON A MOUNTAIN ROAD

I finished graduate school in the summer of 1984. A few days later, my roommate, my dog and I were driving a large U-Haul truck from Provo, Utah, to Washington, D.C., where I hoped to get a job. Everything my friend and I owned was in that U-Haul, plus my car was towed behind it.

We got to the outskirts of Denver about rush hour and I was coming down a steep grade in stop-and-go traffic when the brakes started burning. Lots of black smoke was coming out of my wheels. I had no idea how much longer I would have brakes. I was absolutely horrified.

Worse, I was driving in a highway construction zone, so there was no shoulder to pull over into. To my right was just a line of orange barrels. Beyond that was a meagre couple of yards to a drop off - with a long way to the bottom down a steep rocky mountainside. If my brakes gave way, there was nowhere to go but right into the back of the guy in front of me.

The man in the pickup truck in front of me somehow let me know that he knew I was in trouble, and that he would use his brakes to help stop me if I lost mine. It would be a gosh-awful mess, but he wasn´t going to let me down. I can´t express how much that reassurance meant to me.

Given the amount of combined weight between the full U-Haul and my car, his truck would have undoubtedly been destroyed. He would have been injured seriously, perhaps even worse. He had to have known that.

It would have been smart for him to get out of our way and let us chance smacking into someone else. But he stayed right in front of us, giving me as much room as he could manage, for as long as I needed it. Moreover, his eyes smiled reassurance in his rearview mirror.

Soon we hit a more level road, traffic started moving better, and the danger passed. But boy was it tense for a while!

I never got to thank him personally. I never even saw his face, other than a glimpse of his eyes in his mirror and his hand waving goodbye when he knew we were going to be all right.

Periodically, I still wish good fortune to the man in the pickup who offered to put himself in harm´s way to save two women in a runaway U-Haul.

It´s been almost 20 years and that one selfless act still deeply inspires me. I only hope that if I´m ever called upon to do something that grand, that I´ll come through just like the man in the truck did.

E-mail subscriptions to HeroicStories are free. Sign up here: HeroicStories.org.

Catherine Nesbitt forwards this story about

THE LAST RIDE ON MY HARLEY

While riding my Harley, I swerved to avoid hitting a deer, lost control, and landed in a ditch, severely banging my head.

Dazed and confused, I crawled out of the ditch to the edge of the road when a shiny new convertible pulled up with a very beautiful woman who asked, "Are you okay?"

As I looked up, I noticed she was wearing a low-cut blouse with cleavage to die for....

"I´m okay, I think," I replied as I pulled myself up to the side of the car to get a closer look.

She said, "Get in and I´ll take you home so I can clean and bandage that nasty scrape on your head."

"That´s nice of you," I answered, "but I don´t think my wife will like me doing that!"

"Oh, come now. I´m a nurse," she insisted. "I need to see if you have any more scrapes and then treat them properly."

Well, she was really pretty and very persuasive. Being sort of shaken and weak, I agreed, but repeated, "I´m sure my wife won´t like this."

We arrived at her place which was just few miles away, and after a couple of cold beers and the bandaging, I thanked her and said, "I feel a lot better, but I know my wife is going to be really upset so I´d better go now."

"Don´t be silly!" she said with a smile. "Stay for a while. She won´t know anything. By the way, where is she?"

"Still in the ditch with the Harley, I guess."

Tom Williamson forwards this open letter from Judge Robert Meadows from the Circuit Court in Florida, one American´s take on the growing trade war between the US and Canada:

THANK YOU, CANADA

Have you ever stopped to consider how lucky we Americans are to have the neighbors we have? Look around the globe at who some folks have been stuck sharing a border with over the past half century:

North Korea / South Korea

West Germany / East Germany

Greece / Turkey

Iran / Iraq

Israel / Palestine

India / Pakistan

China / Russia

We´ve got Canada. Canada! About as inoffensive a neighbor as you could ever hope for. In spite of all our boasts of "American exceptionalism" and chants of "America first," they just smile, do their thing, and go about their business.

They are on average more educated, have a higher standard of living, free health care, and almost no gun problems. They treat immigrants respectfully and already took in over 35,000 Syrians in the last two years.

They´re with us in NATO, they fought alongside us in World War I, World War II, Korea, the Gulf War, the Bosnian War, Afghanistan, the Kosovo War, and came to our defense after 9/11. There was that one time when Canada took a pass on one of our wars: Vietnam. Turned out to be a good call.

They´ve been steady consumers of American imports, reliable exporters of metals and petroleum products (they are the biggest importer of U.S. products from 37 states), and partnered with NASA in our space missions.

During 911 many aircraft were diverted to Newfoundland, an island province off Canada´s east coast where Americans were housed in people´s homes for two weeks and treated like royalty. In return for their hospitality, this administration slapped a 20% tariff on the products of Newfoundland´s only paper mill, thereby threatening its survival.

And what do Canadians expect of us in return? To be respected for who and what they are: Canadians. That´s what I call a good neighbor.

But the King of Chaos couldn´t leave well enough alone. Based on his delusions of perpetual victimhood, out of the clear blue, he´s declared economic war on Canada. On CANADA! And he did it based on Canada being a national security risk to the US! For no good reason, other than the voices in his head that told him it was a war he could win. So why not do it, then?

Trump went ahead and imposed his tariffs on aluminum and steel even though we have a trade surplus with Canada on those products! Trudeau retaliated in kind. And now, the White House is preparing a new wave of tariffs in retaliation for Trudeau´s retaliation. This time he threatens a tariff on automobiles, even though 70% of their components originate in the U.S.!

It´s just a temporary spat, right? Except for that smile on Vladimir´s face in the Kremlin, as the NATO pact unravels a little more with each passing day.

Again, we´re talking about Canada. Our closest ally, friend and neighbor.

On behalf of an embarrassed nation, people of Canada, I apologize for this idiotic and wholly unnecessary attack. Please leave the back channels open. We the People of Progressive Persuasion stand with you.

Barbara Wear shares a cartoon that I can relate to:

From Change.org comes this story of young Canadian activists:

KIDS THESE DAYS

Can you remember what you were doing when you were 12?

This month I want to celebrate the next generation of heroes by sharing some of the incredible young people changing the world on our platform: tackling issues like single-use plastic, protecting students from sexual abuse, and food waste.

Mya and Eve, 12-year-old environmental activists from Calgary, joined a coalition and successfully petitioned Starbucks to invest in developing a more environmentally-friendly cup. I was there when the young girls met with the CEO of Starbucks, Kevin Johnson, presented their petition, and spoke about ways Starbucks could reduce its impact on the planet.

It was a victory! Starbucks responded by committing $10 million USD to develop a fully recyclable and compostable nextgen cup!

It was incredibly inspiring to see a sixth-grade school science project transform into a global campaign with more than 300,000 supporters from around the world - and even more inspiring to see that the girls´ success with a global coffee giant only motivated them to do more!

Mya and Eve recently joined forces with Ben, another young change-maker from Calgary. Together they´re asking Canadian favourite Tim Hortons to join Starbucks and invest in developing and using a more environmentally-friendly cup.

Ontario grade 10 student Sara founded the #NotJustRumours movement to protect students from teachers who engage in sexual abuse or misconduct. Sara and her classmates coordinated a school walkout across several Toronto schools, which was covered by local and national media, including CBC and Global News.

In a huge step forward, Ontario will now revoke the licences of teachers found guilty of groping or sexually touching students. This is a huge victory for Sara´s campaign, but she´s not done yet.

Sara and her peers will continue to fight for "a clear and comprehensive path" for schools to follow when sexual misconduct allegations come forth.

When Justin heard that $31 billion worth of food is thrown out in Canada each year, he was shocked. When he found that four million Canadians experience food insecurity, he knew he had to act.

Inspired by a successful Change campaign in France, Justin started his own petition calling for Canadian supermarkets to be required to donate all unsold food products to charities like food banks. His petition is about to top 100,000 signatures, and Justin is gaining political support.

Having the privilege of working with young people like Mya, Eve, Sara, Justin (and so many more amazing change-makers across Canada) is one of my favourite parts of working at Change. They make me feel confident that this country and our planet are in good hands.

I wanted to share these stories with you and say a massive thank you - each time you support a petition on Change, you´re helping people like Mya, Eve, Sara, and Justin change the world. To power even more campaigns to win, consider becoming a Change.org Member today.

SUGGESTED SITES

Carol Shoemaker shared this video on Facebook:

This video from the Sunday Family Humour site warns you to expect the unexpected:

In this TED talk, Stephen Webb asks why we have not detected aliens on other planets:

Jadav Payeng, "The Forest Man of India," has planted tens of thousands of trees over the course of nearly 40 years. He has made bloom a once desiccated island that lies in the Brahamputra river, which runs through his home state of Assam:

From the Sunday Family Humour site, a border collie watches footage of herself winning the Purina Prog Challenge, barely able to contain her excitement:

"Men in Coats" is a funny by dumb act from a Melbourne International Comedy Festival: