Every time I blog I feel like I am shouting in a giant, dark room. There's no one to hear me. I guess I do it because I have a lot of thoughts inside me that I want to get out. I am mystified at how humanity continually spins its wheels in the mud. While our technology moves forward, little else does. We are the lost species.
One thing that frustrates me is how people get locked into behaviors that are harmful to themselves, others, and the environment. If you confront them with something they brush it off with comments like, "it's not that bad." They can't grasp that what they are doing is hurting someone or some thing and they go one doing it.
Here are a few pet peeves I have. As the comedian Carol Burnett says, "this just burns my grits."
Catch & Release
I know several fisherman who enjoy catching fish and releasing them. This is torturing the animal. They swallow a hook, are yanked out the water into the air, and then some redneck is sticking fingers down their throat to get their hook back. The traumatized and injured animal is then tossed back into the water, where it has a good chance of dying. And this is called a sport? Fuck. A search on the web shows that only PETA takes a stand against this form of animal abuse. I guess I am now an animal lover extremist. Oh well.
Balloon Releases
It's so pretty to let balloons go into the air, but all you are doing is littering and endangering wildlife. One day I noticed a large balloon had landed on my house, with a note on it. It was part of a balloon release at an elementary school in Alabama, 90 miles away. Are you kidding? I wrote an unpleasant letter saying I had to get out the ladder and climb on my roof to get the dastardly thing.
On several hiking trips I have seen balloon scraps high in the trees. To see something shiny in a forest really gets your attention. I immediately think of the alien crash site in Roswell, NM. Is it debris from a UFO? Or is it a signaling station for a spy network? But as I get closer to the shiny object and look up I notice that it's, oh, a balloon.
The fallen balloons are sometimes mistaken by animals as food. And in the water they cause entanglement issues for sea life. If you must buy a balloon for a festive event, please don't let it get away.
Fireworks
During one major holiday the loud fireworks made my neighbor's dog go crazy, and he tore up the basement ductwork trying to get away from the noise. At my house, things went far worse. It was New Year's Eve, and the loud noise made my two dogs burst through the gate and run blindly down the street. One dog, my beloved friend Tripp, was smashed by a car. So, I hate fireworks. During New Year's and Independence Day the fireworks go off for days before and after the event. They terrify wild and domestic animals alike. If you must celebrate a holiday with burning objects, use fireworks that don't make noise, like sparklers.
One positive trend are the drone light shows, which I hope will soon replace fireworks at public events.
Conclusion
So, I'm sitting at my local grocery store parking lot and I notice that I'm the ONLY one who brings in my own canvas bags for groceries. Now, if I was in a yuppie area at one of those organic grocery stores, I know that far more people would have their reusable bags. Why is that? I live at the edge of the Atlanta suburbs in Georgia. Why don't less educated and country folk care about the environment? Why don't they just take a little extra effort to obtain some reusable bags and bring them to the store? Maybe because their religion doesn't show much interest in the environment? Or maybe they are too ignorant or isolated to understand the harmful impacts of plastic bags? The same hold trues for the love and care of animals -- it's just not mentioned much by the fire and brimstone preachers. I really don't know the answers, but it makes me sad.
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