Wednesday, March 14, 2007

The Crows Moved And the Scam Went On

Where I grew up there was a lot of development going on. New homes, businesses and roads were being put in. The fact they were being built mostly in an area that had been polluted with chemicals and garbage for the previous 70 years seemed to be well ignored by most. Heck as kids we used to throw pebbles at rocks close to the ground and watch it spark and the ground would burst into flames. I remember they tried to put up a fence to keep people out of the more polluted areas. They put up a fence alright...they put it up about 8 times by my count and each time the ground would eat through the metal fence posts and the fence would fall over.

Eventually they gave up.No one with any sense thought anyone would care about this land because it was essentially useless if you liked breathing and not glowing in the dark. But then came the politicians...

The land was cleaned up enough to make it look presentable. All the garbage heaps, old tires, and abandoned cars were removed but then they made the mistake of chopping the trees down. Crows had been living in this area of town pretty much undisturbed for decades. There were 10's of thousands of them.Sure roads and buildings are nice but the land is still polluted and NOW all these crows needed a home and they found one.

They went to Churchville, the next town over, they crapped everywhere, chased animals and people, ate out of and made a mess out of all the garbage cans in town and were a general nuisance. The people yelled, the mayor gave speeches, the town council met and they decided to hire a guy who handled situations like this by using dogs and small explosives to drive the crows away. It worked and the crows left.

They went to Waterville, the next town over, they crapped everywhere, chased animals and people, ate out of and made a mess out of all the garbage cans in town and were a general nuisance. The people yelled, the mayor gave speeches, the town council met and they decided to hire a guy who handled situations like this by using dogs and small explosives to drive the crows away. It worked.

They went to my town, they crapped everywhere, chased animals and people, ate out of and made a mess out of all the garbage cans in town and were a general nuisance. The people yelled, the mayor gave speeches, the town council met and they decided to hire a guy who handled situations like this by using dogs and small explosives to drive the crows away.

And so it went and still goes to this day. The crows every year from one town to the next and then back again.

Sometimes I think about the crows, my town, Waterville, and Churchville and the stupid politicians developing useless land when I see these "troop surges" to clean up towns of insurgents and I wonder how many years they'll be pushing crows around in Iraq. The people feel powerless, the mayors like it because they look like they're doing something, and the guy moving the crows around keeps making a fortune every year for something that's never going to end.

Was it all worth the money and aggravation that the crows caused? If only they thought about the long term problems before hand and not the short term $$$ the politicians put in their pockets, none of this ever would have happened. Sort of sounds like Iraq huh?

Anyone want to buy some vacant buildings on polluted land covered in crow shit? How about a $500 million embassy in the middle of a civil war torn nation? If so I know where you can go to get both.

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