It was a heartening story covered in our local paper here in Cincinnati over recent days. A road project that has seemed to be going on forever ran into another setback recently when a lodge of beavers was found to have occupied an outfall pipe that was due to be filled with concrete. This could have been bad news for the the beavers, but it turns out they had the law on their side, as Ohio prohibits the relocation of beavers and other wild animals. So, rather than having their lives disrupted by us busy humans and our designs, a workaround was devised where “they can do their beaver thing and live their beaver lives”, as explained by a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Sewer District. “We thought that was the best outcome.” Indeed, that is the best outcome, definitely for the beavers and also for our own consciences. And maybe we should consider extending this same courtesy to our fellow humans who have sought refuge in this country and just want to do their thing and live their lives. That would also be the best outcome, wouldn’t it?
