Ray's Thought for the Day - How to Make Yourself a Public Spectacle

It's easier than you might guess. All you have to do is go to a public spot and attempt to interact with nature. Take along some equipment, like perhaps binoculars and stand around looking up at something or other with the binoculars and pretty soon the police will come along and visit with you. Doubtless, your odd behavior has been reported to the responsible authorities. Take a little hike down the highway right-of-way. You'll draw attention to yourself. I promise.

Do all your neighbors leave outdoor lights on 24/7? Do your neighbors clear brush to facilitate their being able to see you, or somebody like you, behaving oddly, speaking in unknown tongues, or sneaking up?

In Tejas, brush is cleared to keep terrorists from sneaking up on the hydroelectric dams, using the brush for cover. No shit. I'm not kidding. Of course, there may be other reasons for clearing off the brush besides the sneaking terrorists, but the sneaking terrorist are given as the official reason.

In Tejas thousands of acres are cleared of vegetation in the vicinity of the official border with Mexico. These areas are kept clear of vegetation so that the border patrol can search for illegal alien footprints more easily. You wouldn't want to go down to those areas and track your footprints around. You'd draw a crowd. Plus leaving footprints around that might confuse La Migra would certainly be unpatriotic and potentially dangerous to the Homeland since you would be wasting La Migras valuable time.

Pretty soon, in Tejas, when you go outside to interact with nature, chances are you will get videotaped. Just hope that telescope or plant press you're toting doesn't appear dangerous or threatening on the video. You could get yourself accidentally cluster bombed or tortured by mistake. (Oops, well, that birdwatcher could have been an Islamic fascist terrorist in disguise). This is assuming the improbable,that anyone at Homeland Security would ever look at the videotape in real time. If no one's looking in real time you have escaped the cluster bomb, probably.

Yep, interacting with nature in Tejas is increasingly problematic, and that's saying a lot, considering how things were for the nature interactor back when the property rights movement kicked off. That's why we try to get as much nature going at the CB as we have room for. If we have sufficient nature here, we don't feel the urge to go out there, and make a public spectacle of ourselves.