Easterners

There are times when, as a native of South Dakota, that I slap my forehead regarding East Coast logic.

This morning is one of those times. As my Caribou coffee brewed, I brought up the Washington Post online. The metro feature article is about prairie dogs.

A person from the East Coast sees prairie dogs and thinks, "Oh, how cute! They're so adorable! Look! They're kissing!" as they stop and block traffic in the state and national parks out west. Westerners see prairie dogs and think, "Rodent!"

Folks, prairie dogs ARE rodents! If cattle ranchers own their land, they should be able to do whatever the h-e-double toothpicks they want to do to the rodents on their land. Prairie dog towns are holes in the ground. Cattle can step into the holes and break their legs. Would a contractor be pissed if one of his power tools was destroyed? Would a programmer be ticked if his laptop was banged up?

Cattle are the capital of ranchers, who are business owners. They are sold so you can rush through traffic to Ruby Tuesday, Applebee's, Outback, etc. for your burger or steak.

This all reminds me of the mountain lion saga. To folks out here, they are beautiful, majestic creatures that should never be hunted. However, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, they are (rightfully so, in my opinion). Why am I pro-mountain lion (aka cougar) hunting?

A couple of years back, mountain lions started coming into towns in the hills (towns in existence for the last 125+ years, people, not new commuter-villes like we have out here). The mountain lions began picking off dogs and cats in people's back yards. How would you like your Fido or Fluffy to be mountain lion food? The worst case I heard was a mountain lion that went through a closed patio door to a basement in Spearfish, S.D. to eat cats INSIDE a home.

Puts a whole new perspective on things, huh?

Moral of the story: Empathy, folks, empathy. There are reasons that people living in an area do the things they do. Communicate, figure out why people are taking the actions they are, and think about what they are going through.