Dr. Forbush Thinks

When I was in my early teens I used to go hunting with my dad. I had a hunting dog and I learned to shoot a shotgun and a .22. Isn’t that what boys are supposed to do? Rabbit was our usual goal. There were lots of rabbits and they were in season most of the time, as best I can recall. We’d skin and cook the rabbits and we’d have a nice family dinner. I also practiced target shooting as well. I wasn’t the best shot, but I got better the more I practiced.

Learning how to handle a gun was an important part of growing up. I learned to be responsible and careful. It was quite clear that a gun was a dangerous tool that should be respected. Safety was drilled into my head every time I touched a gun. And, safety is the most important aspect of any activity involving a gun. In fact, they have this little button on the riffle called a safety that should only be pushed when you are certain that you have a valid target nearby.

The more I read and hear about the Dick Cheney hunting accident, the more I recall the warnings of my youth. Always be sure of what you are shooting at before you disengage the safety always echoed through my head. Never aim a gun at a person was another. So, why would an experienced hunter like Dick Cheney wheel around and shoot behind him before he even had a fix on his target? Does he need glasses? Was he drinking? Was he playing some macho game of whoever shoots the most stuff wins a bet?

To me, it seems that a quail and a human are quite different. What if the object in Vice President Cheney’s sights was an endangered species like a Whooping Crane? Whooping Cranes have wings like quails. Would he have wheeled around and blindly shot at a Whooping Crane? How many things has he killed that weren’t in season? I’m guessing that chances are pretty good that he wouldn’t have reported these things to the press had anyone in his hunting party shot them. After all, he shot a person and wasn’t going to leak that information to the press.

Sure, this little incident was a accident. But it seems to me that these kinds of accidents don’t happen to experienced hunters. They happen to people who are arrogant enough to believe that they are above the law. These accidents happen to people who go out drinking while they are hunting. These accidents happen to people who don’t regard safety as a high priority. These kinds of accidents happen to people who believe that they have to prove to their buddies that they are macho, because they have some insecurity issues that they haven’t worked out. I just wonder where Dick Cheney falls in this list of reasons why this accident happened to him.

The thing that bothers me about this is none of these qualities is a quality that I would want for a man that takes his turn carrying the “nuclear football.” This administration raises the fear that North Korea and Iran are very close to having nuclear weapons, but they don’t bat an eye at the crazy situation that we currently have with Dick Cheney and George W Bush commending our military and having their fingers on the nuclear button.

Its funny that every time that George W Bush tries to raise his poll numbers he plays the fear card. He tries to scare us into believing that we are safe because he is in charge. This time around he told us how he single handedly foiled an al Qaeda attack on Los Angeles. I don’t know how comfortable that makes me feel, when I know that the leader of the free world crashes on his bike and chokes on pretzels. But, we all thought we knew that Dick Cheney was actually running things, so we could breath a sigh of relief if we ever thought about it too much. But, now we need to worry even more knowing how Dick Cheney disregards safety recommendations so easily while he is out hunting.

What other things is he disregarding when he is actually on the job?





Cross Posted @ Bring It On, tblog, Blogger and BlogSpirit



Politics