I Wrote This Back in June, But...

We live in a marvelous country that is so full of beauty that people of all races and countries visit the sweet spots.  Residents of the Midwest are somewhat insulated from the diversity that the rest of the country has.  Or maybe I should just say that Indiana is.  The Pacific Northwest, however, is loaded with cultural diversity.  My grandchildren's friends are of many races--Indian, Oriental (both considered Asian), some African-American, Hispanic, and more.  I welcome that.  But....but...things happen that cause us to make generalizations sometimes.  I trying to fight it.  Here's what I'm talking about:

One weekend when I visited, we drove up to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic mountains.  There is a meadow there where deer graze seemingly oblivious to people.  The meadow area had a lot of paved trails.  It also had signs everywhere saying, "Stay on the trails".  As we were watching the deer feed and interact, one deer stupidly decided to rest.  He/She was lying down...when along came an Indian family:  Mom, Dad, and grandparents, plus a toddler no more than two years old.  They were NOT on the paved trail.  They were on the meadow, and their toddler was running after the reclining deer.  The parents did nothing to stop the kid.  They were too busy taking pictures.  As the child got too close to the deer, it got up in fear and moved away, but the toddler continued to chase...and the parents still did nothing.  Finally...FINALLY...the parents scooped up the child and let the deer move on, but it was not a stellar moment in tourist awareness.

On that same note, a couple of days ago, Meg drove me to see Snoqualmie Falls up in the Cascade Mountains.  As it happened, there was a search-and-rescue thing going on when we got there, so certain areas of the parking lot and viewing area were blocked off by yellow tape.  With a lot of effort, we walked up to the part that wasn't blocked.  We found, however, that a bunch of people had breached the yellow tape to get a better view of the falls, only to be ignominiously pushed back by a park official.  At least 30 people were chased out of the area, and every single one of them was Asian. Some were overheard to say that the yellow tape just said "caution"...not "stay out".  I honestly don't think we really need to be that specific.

Look folks, I don't care what your culture or nationality is, but I DO expect you to abide by the rules.  They apply to you!  They happen for a reason...for your protection, but more for the protection of the animals and other humans that frequent each place.  Disney isn't responsible for an alligator taking off your 2-year-old toddler.  The Cincinnati Zoo isn't responsible for your kid falling into the gorilla exhibit which caused the death of the gorilla.  It isn't cute when a newborn bison has to be put down because a human decided to intervene in Nature's way.  It just gets ugly.

I hope our country's amazing places continue that way...but people need to get a whole lot smarter.
Common sense just doesn't seem to exist anymore....