JANUARY 4th - Don't Be Shaggy



On this day in 1968, a duck hunter in Texas accidentally shot and killed a whooping crane. Problem being whooping cranes were and continue to be on the endangered lists. This wasn’t a Dick Cheney incident. The guy meant to shoot the bird; he just thought it was a duck. Not on the endangered list. I’m no JJ Audubon, but the birds don’t look all that similar to me. Of course distance might have had something to do with it. I mean from far enough away I could be mistaken for Ryan Gosling (keeping the bird theme). Gosling and I are dead ringers if your vantage point is from 300 yards away with no sight-enhancing apparatus. Of course, I also look extremely similar to Mr. Bean at the same distance. So I get how such an accident could have been an honest mistake. The guy owned up to it too. Turned the bird into the proper authorities. Didn’t hide from it or try to cover it up--MO’s that are all too common these days. Maybe people were brainwashed by Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me.” Or maybe it’s been decades of politicians actively punting the blame down the line or across the way that has ruined person culpability. I mean Bill Clinton needed clarification of the verb “is.” Of course the situations aren’t equal. Hooking up with Monica Lewinsky is not the same as accidentally killing a bird. Bill was very much in Shaggy mode. Even so, I dare say the world could use a bit more culpability. And I realize this is much easier to say than to practice. So I guess it boils down to this: people make mistakes. They lie. They cheat. They steal. If the mistakes are reasonable (I’m pretty John Wayne Gacy made some, but that’s a bit of a different story) second chances should be given. But 1st those mistakes should be acknowledged and owned. Basically, if you accidentally kill an endangered whooping crane hand it in. In other words, Don’t be Shaggy.

This Day has been Marked.

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