FOR THE BIRDS

Please read the story at this site and then come back.

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/rare-woodpecker-sends-town-running-for/20060924114809990001

This entry started life as a posting on the board about the birds. After I started reworking it, it started to grow. Sort of like the batch of bread I did this weekend. Another one I did got called liberal crap. I guess I haven’t been paying attention. I didn’t know that protecting the world that protects us was crap of any kind, liberal or conservative. I thought it was bloody obvious. It’s called operation CYA. Anyway here goes, with additions.

 

This is probably themost times I've entered a board. And I had to make a last contribution. There have been some posters who claim that God gave us dominion over the world and any creature that doesn't serve us or gets in the way should be "eradicated." (One writer who posted on this thread suggested I might be using words that went over some folk’s heads. Could be.)

 

I don't think you've thought this all the way through. If you respect and love God and God created the world, you have to respect every creature on it because GOD CREATED IT. Frankly it seems damned arrogant to assume that we know what value the Creator puts, if any, on His/Her creation and that we can simply destroy a part of that creation because it gets in our way.  Creation has a value far beyond the dollar signs we try to attach to it. Somehow I don’t believe the Creator/ress was thinking in dollars/linear foot at the time.

 

Every creature "serves" us by supporting this wonderful, miraculous little blue world we live on by keeping the web of the Creator strong and whole. There may be other life sustaining worlds, but this is the only one we know of. It deserves our love, support and respect if only to save our own sorry asses. Evan if we found a world that would support our kind of life, and it didn’t appear to be inhabited, we don’t have anything approaching the technology to explore it much less colonize it. And in mom’s opinion we don’t deserve to make a discovery like this until we prove we can take of what we already have. You so ROCK girl.

 

<P class='MsoNormalstyle="MARGIN:' 0pt? 0in>And I am so tired of this “I can do what I want” attitude. It’s so, I want to say first grade but I’m probablyinsulting countless intelligent first graders. Most of us accept all kinds of limits on what we want to do for all sorts of reasons. Either because it’s dangerous to us or the good to all of us outweighs the inconvenience to ourselves. The arguments supporting public health, flight screening at airports, making sure our food and houses are safe spring to mind and are the tip of the iceberg. And the people, often men, who keep trying to tell women, you got pregnant, you gotta carry it and don’t come looking to us for help are there in the mix too. Hey, guys, can't have it both ways.

 

In fact I’m beginning to realize just how much so many Americans sound like a bunch of spoiled five year olds. And the rest of us have been too polite to call them on it. After all, how adult is it to answer any criticism or question with an accusation. From “your soft on terrorism” to “you liberals just hate America.” For any crazy ass claim they make, just ask why and keep asking why until you get an answer that makes sense or for the person you are asking to stroke out. It probably won’t be good for their blood pressure. And be prepared for the long haul. It may take awhile.  

 

Folks who have to spend any time at all taking care of kids or pets or elderly relatives find out real fast that what you want ends up way down the list of what is actually going to get done. No kids, but I kept an eye on my younger sisters and my nephews when they were little. Doing homework while you’re keeping track of a five year old is a lesson in dong it one paragraph at a time. Heck, there was a time where I’d automatically look up every couple of paragraphs to check on things whether there was somebody to check on or not. It was just such a habit.

 

I have to admit that far more posters fell in the "work around the birds" than the "just shoot 'em camp." And that gives me a glimmer of hope.