After the Boston bombing the news media has spent days and weeks trying to determine why these men did what they did. They want to know what America did to make these brothers so angry with us. They want to know why these men were not arrested before they did something so terrible. The media is in a tizzy about this new era of homegrown radicals, and about why they could live among us and still hate us.
A friend of mine from Texas explained it all to me: “Here in west Texas I have rattlesnakes on my place, living among us. I have killed a rattlesnake on the front porch. I have killed a rattlesnake on the back porch. I have killed rattlesnakes in the barn, in the shop and on the driveway. In fact, I kill every rattlesnake I encounter.
I kill rattlesnakes because I know a rattlesnake will bite me and inject me with poison. I don’t stop to wonder why a rattlesnake will bite me; I know it will bite me because it's a rattlesnake and that's what rattlesnakes do. I don’t try to reason with a rattlesnake . . . I just kill it. I don’t try to get to know the rattlesnake better so I can find a way to live with the rattlesnakes and convince them not to bite me. I just kill them. I don’t quiz a rattlesnake to see it I can find out where the other snakes are, because (a) it won’t tell me, and (b) I already know they live on my place. So, I just kill the rattlesnake and move on to the next one.
I don’t look for ways I might be able to change the rattlesnake to a non-poisonous rat snake . . . I just kill it. Oh, and on occasion, I accidentally kill a rat snake because I thought it was a rattlesnake at the time. Also, I know, for every rattlesnake I kill, two more are lurking out there in the brush. In my lifetime I will never be able to rid my place of rattlesnakes. Do I fear them? No!
Do I respect what they can do to me? Yes! And because of that respect I give them the fair justice they deserve . . . I kill them . . .”
"I never saw a horse that needed stealin' but I met a lot of men that needed hangin' - Judge Roy Bean
STORMBRINGER SENDS
While I am a Yankee, I have enough of a Southern background to be aware of the simple rule, "See a rattler, kill a rattler." When we went to visit kin down in 'bama I witnessed adherence to the code. See it, kill it.
ReplyDeleteJust last week, in NC, I saw the result. A dead canebrake in the road. Some driver, not all that long before I passed the same way, saw it and killed it.
Words to live by.
Seems a fair shake to me.
ReplyDeleteThat's ironic, but I'm scared of snake so... just do what he wants, please.
ReplyDeleteIf you are interested in your favorite actors' birthday, please take a look at celebrity birthdays database.