Pet Peeves
Pet peeves — those little annoyances that get under our skin, and we just can’t ignore them, no matter how hard we try.
We all have pet peeves. If you don’t have any pet peeves, you’re one of those people who are tolerant of everyone and everything. A rarity, or is it ignorance?
Ignorance is a pet peeve at the top of my list.
These past few weeks, I have been busy. Trying to save the Canadian Geese in our area and educating the ignorant is exhausting work. Yes, this year, the HOA board is planning another culling. What is wrong with humans wanting to kill anything and everything when it doesn’t suit their agenda?
I wrote an article (Peace for our Geese) last November or December. There was a petition attached to the piece, which received over twelve hundred signatures. Since then, we have teamed up with an international organization called In Defense of Animals.
In our last HOA meeting, they informed us they planned on culling the geese again this year. The problem with that is even though they are resident geese to the State of Georgia, they have migrated here for summer sanctuary and nesting. Because migrating is instinctual, these geese tend to fly to different areas of Georgia for various reasons. Nesting in a safe place is key for successful reproduction, and avoiding hunting season in rural areas is a survival instinct. Each year HOAs, golf courses, and community parks pay the USDA to round up and kill these geese. Geese killed almost to extinction back in the 1960s are now thought to be overpopulated.
This year at the meeting, I spoke up. I asked why. And their answer wasn’t satisfactory. They had no answer. “Just because.” When I spoke to the USDA director, he told me they needed a valid reason for rounding up the geese in our area. On the day I talked to him, he still had not received a damage report from our HOA, nor had he gotten a permit request. Without a permit, they would be rounding up the geese illegally. Something tells me they are doing the roundups unlawfully, and no one has questioned it except me.
IDA sent out a newsletter alert and received over seven thousand signatures. The HOA board members were inundated with emails. A local news reporter got wind of our dilemma, and they will be interviewing me and my partner, Anna, on Monday. This week, a media release will go out to other news and radio stations, ensuring more exposure.
But we are running out of time. It is almost molting season. Once the geese begin to molt, they can’t fly and are easier to round up. I currently have three families of geese who have been together since they flew in. They each had goslings. Two family’s eggs hatched earlier this year, so they have matured to almost full-grown juveniles. The third family’s eggs hatched a week or so ago, so their babies are much younger and coated with down feathers. We have a total of 23, and the family dynamics are fascinating to watch.
All are doomed to execution unless we can raise more awareness and have it stopped. When someone doesn’t educate themselves on any given subject and chooses to either speak about it or perform some destructive act, I call that ignorance.
I understand we’re supposed to get along with all our fellow writers. However, I have a problem with writers who refuse to research propaganda. As a writer and a college graduate, it’s drilled in our heads from day one to research, research, research. AND you MUST use reliable sources.
Before selecting my Creative Writing major, I was studying Journalism. Boring. Of course, this was way before bias journalism became acceptable. I first learned about bias journalism when I lived in a small town in Montana back in 1999 and volunteering as a DJ on their local community radio station and public broadcasting.
A reporter for the Great Falls Tribune and I did not see eye to eye. Extremely biased, her reporting was subpar at best. She didn’t like me because I continually called her out on her bias reporting. She sided with the old cronies who feared change. Rather than learn what the other side was fighting for, she chose to be ignorant.
Social media has ruined the truth and has made more people ignorant of facts. We all have our own beliefs; however, it doesn’t mean they are based on fact. Politics is a good example. Some believe this country should change all its systems from capitalism to socialism. Some believe Biden is God’s gift. Some believe Trump divided our country. Some think we should have a free health care system. Ignorance is not bliss. It is hurting our country. Rather than research out these statements, ignorance will allow lies to exist.
We do not live in a country bent on destroying its citizens. Ask any immigrant. If it was true, they never would have immigrated here. Every immigrant who has crossed our border is doing so because life is better in the USA. The only ones who don’t believe that are the ignorant ones. That’s a fact.
I find many of today’s youth believe our country is a dystopian world. I can see their point. Especially after the last year, 2020, with lockdowns, face masks, almost a mandatory vaccine, the current President signing a plethora of Executive Orders rather than putting things through Congress, the riots, the dissatisfaction of a minimum wage, medical care, and a recession where the cost of living has increased five percent in one month, the fastest and highest percentage in history.
Though our world is imperfect, we need to stop believing the doomsday conspiracy theories. Our world has always been flawed. I feel I’m living through the 1960s era all over again. Have we not learned from our past mistakes? Oh, wait, how can we learn from our past mistakes when our past has been erased? The ignorant ones are the cancel culture creatures. If we cancel it, we can ignore it. If we cancel it, it didn’t exist.
Those who never experienced the riots and discord during the Civil Rights Movement or the Vietnam War wouldn’t have a clue about what I’m talking about. But if you’re into music, listen to the songs from that era. These lyrics could have easily been written today. Why? Because ignorance has not allowed us to move on. When you know the truth, you see the change.
Another pet peeve of mine is graduation ceremonies. When I was growing up, the only graduation ceremony we had to look forward to was high school graduation. We didn’t graduate from Preschool, Kindergarten, sixth grade, eighth grade, or whatever another grade pretends to put on these ceremonies. We graduated from high school. That was a huge accomplishment. It was something to look forward to and strive for. Today, along with the ‘everyone gets a trophy’ kids, no wonder they are ungrateful for the things they have. There is no incentive to meet goals. Now, this isn’t every kid, but it is the majority. Why aren’t parents outraged over this?
My stepson ran track in high school. He didn’t put any effort into running fast. He came in last in every race, yet they gave him a letter at the end of the season. A letter used to be reserved for the ones who put in an effort. He did not deserve a letter for participation. He should have gotten nothing because he gave it nothing. Where is the pride in that?
Trans boys wanting to play biological girls sports. Don’t get me started. Well, okay, since I mentioned it. Boys who believe they are girls should not be allowed to play girls’ sports. There is a reason they have separated the sports. If there was no difference between a girl and a boy, then we’d just have sports, not girls’ soccer, girl’s baseball, or girls’ track. Everything would be co-ed. But there is a difference between girls and boys. Follow the science if you don’t believe me. And yes, everyone is entitled to their opinion; this happens to be mine.
If a boy who believes he’s a girl wants to play sports, a new sports league should be formed specifically to meet their needs. Tranny sports would be a huge hit. The playing field would then be level. Trans boys should play against Trans boys, Trans girls should play against Trans girls. What’s wrong with that? It’s an easy, simple solution. Why hasn’t anyone else thought of it? Maybe because the percentage of boys who think they are girls is so small, they can’t make up a team? Is this why they want to teach gender studies in grade school? Are they trying to level the playing field?
“The New Normal” belief began at the beginning of 2020. At first, it was used after we were told to hunker down into place for fourteen days. Once it continued for a year, the new normal finally had a face. Though the pandemic is still on people’s minds, the normal we thought was normal is no longer normal, and now we are going into a new normal. Huh? But as our country sunk deeper and deeper into depression, recession, and suicidal thoughts, with drug use and alcohol addiction doubling in less than a year, ignorance once again raised its ugly head.
Cloth face masks would not stop a deadly virus from entering your body. The warning on the box even says so. So why did we believe it would keep us safe? Several years ago, we were told hand sanitizer wasn’t good for us. We should stop using it. The stuff was poisoning our immune system. The same went for antibacterial soaps. Why, then, all of a sudden, are the ‘experts’ stating to use it continuously? What happened to the previous scientific warnings?
The biggest ignorant factor was when we were told what was essential and what was non-essential. Did anyone ever question how many cashier clerks or stock clerks contracted COVID in Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe’s, the local grocery store, the local dispensary, or liquor store? And yet, we could stand in line at these stores and felt safe because the ‘experts’ said we could, as long as we wore a mask and stayed six feet apart, washed our hands with soap and water or hand sanitizer, or wore gloves or a face shield. But we couldn’t stand in line to vote because we may contract the virus?
The airlines promoted cleaner air, sanitized seats after each flight, and no middle seat occupancy. Why weren’t these in place before the virus? Did our health safety not matter before?
If we can’t question the motives of this insanity, we become ignorant. This brings me back to social media. Not only has social media distorted the truth, but now they have made us all ignorant. They did this by promoting FEAR; False Evidence Appearing Real. And if you did question it, they deleted you.
Their power has grown expediently, and our ignorance has allowed them more power as we have grown more dependent on our devices. Mind control used to be a big Sci-Fi plot; now it’s real life.
Pet Peeves. Little annoyances that get under our skin and grow into big annoyances.
As a society, we should never tolerate ignorance.
