Quote:
Originally Posted by Maker
THIS thread is about alligators. It's not about deflecting the focus to other dangers. Perhaps start your own thread to discuss solutions to those other problems.
All sorts of things are made safer as new solutions are implemented once a problem is identified. Seat belts, child proof packaging, fall arrest harnesses, etc.
There is an identified problem. The most effective solution here is to get rid of every alligator.
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Well, that IS a solution, all right. It could be the solution to the bee problem as well, as bees (along with their cousins wasps and hornets) kill over 50 times a many Americans each year as to alligators. We COULD eradicate all of them (hugely expensive and no guaranteed result), which would certainly solve the problem of them killing humans. Just like gators. 'Course, the orange grove farmers would suffer a giant chomp to the shorts, but hey! It is all about The Childerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrn after all...
Most children learn early on that poking a stick into the nest of paper wasps can net a whole lot of undesirable consequences. Or bees for that matter. As a young lad I once tried to capture bumblebees in one of those old fashioned glass milk bottles. Pretty good scheme actually; I'd sneak up on a bumblebee feeding on a clover blossom, put the bottle slowly right behind the bee, then push the bottle forward so the bee was in the neck of the bottle and at the same time clapping a rag over the end of the bottle. It worked for the first couple of bees until I missed the third one, who took umbrage at my outrageousness and nailed my arm. I dropped the bottle and ran, not even looking back to see if the other two had escaped the bottle and were in hot pursuit. Apparently they weren't: a bumblebee can fly at over 10 mph and I doubt a 7-year-old can run that fast, even as scared as I was. But--lesson learned. I didn't blame the bumblebees. They're more than happy to leave you alone as long as you don't mess with them.
So too with gators. Several of the executive courses I've played on have gator-infested water. The fourth hole on Chula Vista for example, which plays over the water and where I've seen gators at least twice. The 6th and 7th on El Diablo both have fairways that play along the water, the seventh for at least 100 yards, and I've seen gators on both. I've played balls hit within a few yards of the shoreline. I don't do anything crazy, like poking around for balls in weeds that adjoin the shoreline (more for snakes than gators, but you never know). I give them their space. They seem more than happy to give me mine.
We can go on finding something else to blame for our own stupidity for only so long.