thursday senseless-murder blogging
a lot of people are very, very good. i'm sure of this because i've known some of these good people personally, and the fact of them is sometimes all that gets me through my day, because a lot of other people are thoughtless and selfish, and more than a handful are cruel, stupid brutes. a number of this latter population appear to have gone on a killing spree in australia, where a dozen or so stingrays have turned up not only dead but mutilated on the shores of australia's eastern coast. local authorities and wildlife officials fear the fish were killed in retaliation for the recent death of steve irwin, a.k.a. the crocodile hunter. if so, it's brainstem-driven idiocy at its finest, as irwin would be outraged and heartbroken over this sort of behavior. he was a sincere and dedicated advocate for some of the world's most feared and misunderstood animals, and the nonlogic being employed by the thugs slaughtering stingrays, one of the ocean's most docile life forms, renders all the good he strove to do thunderously moot. another theory is that people who never gave the rays much thought in the past are now terrified of them, as they can suddenly be classified as "killers," and are doing away with them in a knee-jerk, "get them before they get you" fashion. again, all irwin's positive efforts down the drain, and may his ghost rain vipers and scorpions upon the whole dastardly, ignorant, murderous lot.
of course, some brutes are a little less cruel and a crapload more stupid. yesterday in texarkana, texas, dozens of pigeons poisoned by an exterminator hired by a local bank fell dead into the city's streets during its annual quadrangle festival. the bank's president insists that "it was not the intention of the bank to harm any of these birds." according to her, the exterminator was only supposed to poison the birds enough to make them not want to live near the bank anymore. i don't know what kind of magic poison the exterminator's music man was supposedly peddling, but whatever it was, the president of anti-pest co., inc., admits that "death is sometimes an unfortunate side effect." of poison? really? i'd best stop storing mine in the sugar bowl. at least the folks behind this are now subject to a smidgen of public humiliation, and maybe the parent of some small, sensitive child will sue them for emotional damage. i'm not a fan of trigger-happy plaintiffs on the whole, but i'd like to see some lasting effects in this instance.
my last tale is maybe the saddest for me, as it's a profound personal treachery. in my very own home town, the park commission chairman, who is the father of a classmate and husband of my first- and second-grade bluebirds troop leader, has authorized five people to shoot all the geese they can hit at the town's pond, which is in the dead center of town and more or less right across the street from the high school. the shooting opens in the early morning and is allowed to continue right through the school day. now, nobody's swum at the pond in about six years, and it's september and 60 degrees now anyway, so who cares if there are geese on the beach? not the majority of the townspeople, apparently, who are pretty darn angry, especially since they weren't informed about the decision to allow open hunting next to the library before the gunfire started. worst, the hunting violates a town bylaw establishing the land as a wildlife refuge. i wonder how many of these people knew, as i did after having grown up with his daughter, that espanet was a lifelong hunting enthusiast when they elected him to oversee the town's fauna. i'm happy that they're angry, but the situation is deeply disappointing nonetheless.
here's the thing: people who do things like this are not better than the animals they're killing. they will get all red and bulgy-veined in the face when you tell them so, but that doesn't make it any less true. not better. not. in fact, far, far worse.
this afternoon a co-worker and i were discussing the beautiful wave of subcompact, boffo-mileage cars that is sweeping the country, and another employee stuck her head around her cubicle wall and said she'd be damned if she was going to let anyone tell her not to drive a big, comfortable car. if you can afford the gas, she said, you have every right to use as much of it as you want. "well, i think you have an obligation to the planet, too," i said.
"and i don't," she replied.
not better. far, far worse.
of course, some brutes are a little less cruel and a crapload more stupid. yesterday in texarkana, texas, dozens of pigeons poisoned by an exterminator hired by a local bank fell dead into the city's streets during its annual quadrangle festival. the bank's president insists that "it was not the intention of the bank to harm any of these birds." according to her, the exterminator was only supposed to poison the birds enough to make them not want to live near the bank anymore. i don't know what kind of magic poison the exterminator's music man was supposedly peddling, but whatever it was, the president of anti-pest co., inc., admits that "death is sometimes an unfortunate side effect." of poison? really? i'd best stop storing mine in the sugar bowl. at least the folks behind this are now subject to a smidgen of public humiliation, and maybe the parent of some small, sensitive child will sue them for emotional damage. i'm not a fan of trigger-happy plaintiffs on the whole, but i'd like to see some lasting effects in this instance.
my last tale is maybe the saddest for me, as it's a profound personal treachery. in my very own home town, the park commission chairman, who is the father of a classmate and husband of my first- and second-grade bluebirds troop leader, has authorized five people to shoot all the geese they can hit at the town's pond, which is in the dead center of town and more or less right across the street from the high school. the shooting opens in the early morning and is allowed to continue right through the school day. now, nobody's swum at the pond in about six years, and it's september and 60 degrees now anyway, so who cares if there are geese on the beach? not the majority of the townspeople, apparently, who are pretty darn angry, especially since they weren't informed about the decision to allow open hunting next to the library before the gunfire started. worst, the hunting violates a town bylaw establishing the land as a wildlife refuge. i wonder how many of these people knew, as i did after having grown up with his daughter, that espanet was a lifelong hunting enthusiast when they elected him to oversee the town's fauna. i'm happy that they're angry, but the situation is deeply disappointing nonetheless.
here's the thing: people who do things like this are not better than the animals they're killing. they will get all red and bulgy-veined in the face when you tell them so, but that doesn't make it any less true. not better. not. in fact, far, far worse.
this afternoon a co-worker and i were discussing the beautiful wave of subcompact, boffo-mileage cars that is sweeping the country, and another employee stuck her head around her cubicle wall and said she'd be damned if she was going to let anyone tell her not to drive a big, comfortable car. if you can afford the gas, she said, you have every right to use as much of it as you want. "well, i think you have an obligation to the planet, too," i said.
"and i don't," she replied.
not better. far, far worse.
posted by juniper pearl @ 1:55 PM
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