I always hate the first post after a long pause in blogging.  It feels awkward.  Do I explain where I’ve been?  Or update on all the things I have been wanting to write about but haven’t had time?  Long story short:  May always creeps up on me and then explodes into the craziest month of the year, besides December.  April jogs along slowly and then before I know it, May arrives and the teacher appreciation activities, volunteer obligations, school events collide  and my necessary speed overtakes my natural pace and I end up running around in circles with a circus theme continuously playing in my head.

I’ve also been  busy helping a friend try to pass an ordinance to legalize urban chickens in our town.  By the reactions, you’d think we were proposing to slaughter cute puppies.

I think there are a large group of people excited about the movement, understand it’s place in food sustainability issues and see the future of eco-progression.  And not all of these people want to keep chickens in their backyards, but they understand the value and are supportive of others who want to do it.  And then there is the other side…the people so against it that they are spewing hate everywhere.  People convinced we will all die from avian flu, rats will overtake the city and everyone will want to have a dirt floor so we can admire our new third world kitsch.

Naturally you would all understand if my chicken-ownership will cause me to start burning old tires in the back, right?  Goes without saying…

If only they were as passionate about the real problems that plague this city like gang violence, the ones that will drive their earth-loving, community-minded hippie neighbors out of town.  Can’t we keep a few gardeners happy with a few chickens?  I mean, Canadian Geese poop all over your yard anyway, and I don’t see you dying from strange diseases yet.

Ridiculous.

And I get that not everyone wants chickens – it’s not for everybody.  Clearly, if we were all being forced to OWN a chicken, I would understand an uprising.  But the opinions based in fear or plain ignorance are wearing me down.  If one is against chickens then clearly they shouldn’t need a biology lesson on why a rooster is not necessary, as they would have looked into it enough to at least know that.

Geesh.