Of deers and two pretty cool women in my life

A few weeks ago, on a Saturday morning, I was driving my daughter Debi to the dentist in Orange County. We were driving on the infamous Ortega Highway that on top of being a site of horrendous motorcycle accidents is notorious for the large amount of road kill. Beside crossing a couple of free spirited villages with an hefty population of free roaming dogs and cats, providing a fairly heavy percentage of the road fatalities the highway is traveling thru the Cleveland National Forest and it is a rare day when one does not have to drive by the carcass of a rabbit, skunk, fox, coyote, bearcat or even deer. I hate those moments and feel a large amount of guilt about being part of the problem.
On this day, on the approach of San Juan Capistrano, we drove by a dead deer and a quarter of a mile later by the car responsible for the killing. I was very troubled and felt my throat a little tight at the thought of the killing of an innocent animal for the sake of a right a way. I noticed that Debi was a little too quiet and turned to look at her, and that beautiful young women look at me with tear rolling out of her eyes and gently sobbed with a desperate anger: “That not fair Dad! It was his country! And we shoved a road through it” I was not able to carry much of a conversation at this time, able only to give her a gentle tap on her laps.
The other morning, driving to work with my wife Jinny on the same highway, coming to the Forest Service Fire Station next to the lower San Juan bridge, we came across another deer, visibly hit by another car, but still alive, prone on the side of the road, heads up, unable to stand and get away. The sight greatly disturbed me, as I was turning toward Jinny, I saw this stern look on her face, as without any hesitation she pulled her cell phone out and called 911. No other seemed to react as they sped by the incident.
I do not know what the outcome was. But tonight, as I seat her on my computer reminiscing, my eyes get a bit misty and I realize how proud I am of the humanity of those two wonderful women in my life.

Of Flags and other symbols.

I went to the Temecula Farmers Market yesterday. Among all the people selling their crafts, fruits and vegetable was that lady selling birds in cages. Among the canary and other cockatoo were three doves in small cages. I do not believe that birds (and other animals) belong in cages. It is a prostitution of nature for the benefit of our ego. The temptation is to open the cages, however the poor animals do not have any of the necessary skills needed to survive in the wild.
The sight of those poor doves also brought back the indignation I feel every time the subject of dove hunting is approached.
The cruelty and stupidity of the entire exercise is enormous.
I will never understand why apparently civilized people will all of the sudden turn into bloodthirsty savages at the opening of the season.
Most of those people off course are part of that group that take great offense to the burning or any other type of desecration of the flag, on the ground that this flag is the symbol of America and that we owe respect to it because of the sacrifice of so many to defend it. However the same people do not have any qualm butchering doves that happen to be the universal symbol of peace. If we believe the recounting of all the war we undertook as a nation they were all for the return or protection of Peace. The same people who died for this nation died for the flag no doubt, but they died to bring back Peace, symbolized by the dove, as well!
Lets talk of the wearing of military style camouflage when partaking of the enlighten assassination of a Peace symbol. The dove eyesight is more oriented to the detection of motion than of shape, Camouflage does diddly to make one invisible to most bird. Beside since we were told that our glorious VP was an accomplished hunter, therefore above average, I know that if I was to go in the open with somebody above, at or below average in the hunting field and that said somebody was carrying a gun, loaded, with the definitive hitching to use it, I would not, under any circumstance wear any kind of camouflage whatsoever. Give me bright pink, red, electric lime green, bright yellow, with flashing lights, twirls gizmos, sparkler, even a siren or two for good measure!! Why the fascination to play soldier to kill the symbol of peace?
Now to deepen the absurdity of the subject you have to realize that one of the justification is that you can actually eat doves, they are supposed to be a delicacy, while a flag might be a rather marginal culinary subject. If that argument must be accepted logic would take us to the next step or steps.
Argument number one, off course, would be that if the hunting of dove is in fact a quest for food, the packing of sandwiches and other snack as part of the hunting paraphernalia depict a defeatist attitude from the part of the “Sportsmen” at the least!
Argument number two relating to the gathering of food justifying the slaughter, lets talk efficiency, can we? Spending a whole day driving to, hiking, and hunting in order to bring back the carcass of a few animals weighting only a fraction of a pound does not make sense. If the justification for the kill is morally correct lets go for the economy of scale! Switch only one thing, take out the hunting gun, replace it by a rifle and let go kill a mustang! It’s a wild animal, the kill will bring a thousand pound or so of meat on the hoof and we can fill the freezer with several roasts, ribs and other cut of meat!
What do you mean, that’s a crime? Why. Oh…. You mean the horse is an American symbol that we must respect and protect. Oh, OK it is a symbol of the American Spirit…..but I thought that the dove was a gift from God to all mankind and a symbol of Peace among nation…. You mean…that does not count?…….Where did we go wrong as a civilization?