'Rage, rage against thy neighbour'

'Rage is the only quality which has kept me, or anybody I have ever studied,
writing columns for newspapers.' -- Jimmy Breslin.

This is one of those Rage columns.
It might seem minor to some, but to the Lady of East Hill it was enough to bring tears to her eyes. A feeling of helplessness in a season in which her father died and her children lost their grandfather.
She told me of her plight the other day in downtown Vernon and followed it up with an e-mail.
This is what she wrote:
"I have lived in the same house of East Hill for nearly 20 years. My grown children have moved back home after suffering the loss of my father and my children's grandfather. My son who lived and worked in the North for six years decided it would be nice to bring our small family unit back together, and he recently moved back to Vernon two months ago, and was very fortunate to find a job. The owner/proprietor of a trucking business in the Okanagan hired my son, and we were all thrilled that life seemed to be on the upswing again for us all.
In the two months that my son has worked driving truck, he has brought the truck home twice and parked across the street, in order to save fuel costs and because he was working in the areas of where new construction is taking place at Vernon. It saved time and money to just keep the truck overnight on two occasions ... which I guess is where we went astray.
It seemed that our neighbors complained to the City of Vernon, namely (senior bylaw enforcement official) Mr. Clint Kanester, about the truck being parked on the street, which by the way was parked at 5:30 p.m. and wasn't started up again until 7 a.m. without incident ... Our neighbour of nearly 20 years never contacted us, to say it was bothersome, and/or neither did the City give us this respect. Instead the City of Vernon, namely Clint Kanester, called to my son's employer and lodged a complaint stating, it was against Residential bylaws that the truck was parked at our residence overnight, which could have possibly cost this fine young man his new job. Why doesn't the same neighbour complain about the vehicles late at night cruising with their loud stereos and mufflers blaring up and down the street?
What owner wants to receive negative calls, especially from the City of Vernon, and get complaints about a new employee? My reaction, as a taxpayer and property owner and mother, is why couldn't either of these evidently bothered parties at least have contacted us first, without our knowledge that it was against any laws. I have raised my children to be law abiding, hard working, respect thy neighbour, type of adults, and this is the way they are rewarded, by the City of Vernon phoning to one's employer, which was absolutely handled inappropriately.
I have spoken to my MLA (Tom Christensen), written to the Mayor of Vernon (Sean Harvey), and spoke with Clint Kanester asking for the reason to why we weren't contacted first before approaching my son's employer, and I just wanted to warn other Vernonites who may be in the workforce of truck driving/logging/sawmill and/or any other types of equipment, and/or bringing home company vehicles to be on their guard, as they could be at risk of losing their job, while the same neighbour can have invited guests every Wednesday night use up every parking spot available until 11 p.m. without harassment, and park their 26ft 5th wheel trailer hooked to their crew cab truck in the same spot, plus a motorcycle, dog barking etc. and never have I heard and/or would I have lodged a complaint, either to the City and/or anyone else.
I would be pleased if you would print my letter in hopes that neighbours will respect each other, especially when they have lived without incident in the same homes across from each other for 20 years.
Thank you to my son's employer for not terminating a fine, hardworking young man over this unfortunate incident. If we had known and been contacted by the City of Vernon that it was against any bylaws etc. to have company vehicles parked at home, we would have corrected any problems before they had occurred.
I remain, yours respectfully,
A long time resident of Vernon,
The Lady of East Hill.