Here's a helpful suggestion.
Don't call any business, especially a news media outlet, from your work place - and presumably on work time - to leave an angry message without having the nerve to leave your name and then hang up.
With caller ID, the management of that business - especially the editor of a news media outlet - will call your employer back, play the voicemail to the receptionist and ask for help identifying you in hopes of actually having a conversation with you about your concerns.
In this case, the call was about the front page story in Saturday's Citizen with the headline "Wildfires hurting regional tourism, Quesnel mayor says."
"How insensitive of the Prince George Citizen to be concerned that tourism is affected by the wildfires," the caller said.
"I'm offended and appalled."
Really?
You're offended and appalled by the hundreds of employers and the thousands of jobs directly and indirectly employed by the regional tourism sector and the millions of dollars they are losing because of the wildfires?
Where will you be when hotels and motels, stores and gas stations, lay off their staff and close their businesses because tourists heading to and from Alaska went through Alberta and Grande Prairie this summer, spending their money there, instead of in 100 Mile House, Williams Lake, Quesnel, Prince George, Vanderhoof, Burns Lake and Smithers?
It's offensive and appalling that there are people like you that think that once the evacuees are safely home and the fire is put out that all will be normal again and life will be swell. The harm caused by these wildfires will be felt for years in the Cariboo and the surrounding areas.
Everyone agrees that the Cariboo evacuees and their property are the top priority at the moment. Fortunately, they are receiving an incredible outpouring of emotional, financial and government support to help them in their time of need. That support isn't perfect, of course. Mistakes are being made and people are being overlooked, but overall, the evacuees are being taken care of in a safe, respectable and responsible manner. But what about the residents of Quesnel, many of them who worked so hard on a volunteer basis to organize Billy Barker Days and the Quesnel Skyfest, only to have to cancel them because of the fires? They have lost more than the time they put in. Those two events are together worth millions to economic activity to Quesnel.
Yes, there's always next year and next time, except that next year and next time for both of those events requires the revenues from this year. Without that money, who will pay for them to carry on?
The phone call - and others like it - show that nerves are frayed and frustration is mounting across Prince George. The more than 8,000 evacuees have much to be anxious about, from the stress of fleeing their homes to the uncertainty of when they will get to go back and what will be there when they return.
Yet they aren't the only ones upset with the fires and the evacuations, nor are they the only ones with their lives turned upside down by what's happened. Those people might still be in the comfort of their homes, instead of sleeping in a cot at CNC or in their trailer in a friend's driveway, but they might be sitting there instead of working, wondering how they're going to pay the mortgage and get through the winter without that summer income lost in the wildfires.
We should be worried about the evacuees, now, in the days ahead when they finally get to go home and in the weeks and months ahead as they work to rebuild what's been lost.
We should also be worried, however, about the less obvious victims, particularly because it seems some people think they don't matter and are outraged that the local newspaper believes they do.
And if your supervisor and/or your manager may be upset at you or disciplines you for taking work time to call to complain about something you don't like, now there's an insignificant problem nobody really cares about.
-- Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
