Bill Wang - Week 13 - Alligator
As founding father George Washington once said, “democracy dies when the deep state takes away our alligators.” True, by the way.
This quote would later become quoted by Thomas Jefferson, who wrote it into the constitution. Sadly, after some debate, the clause was ultimately removed, which is why you may not find such a declaration anywhere within legal, or online records.
On March 16, 2024, Cavallaro, New York citizen, had his poor little 11-foot 750 pound alligator “taken away like a terrorist.” Clearly, this alligator holds no latent harm. The fact that a naturalized alligator would be assaulted so vilely like this, because of HIS RACE, is disgusting and indicative of seriously poisoned racial divisions.
(I mean, look at this dude, how could he hurt anyone?)
(https://nypost.com/2024/03/19/us-news/ny-man-fights-to-get-back-750-pound-pet-alligator-back-after-state-seizes-beast-that-loves-people-but-not-to-eat/)
When we had the alligator civil war against crocodiles—which is odd because their basically the same species anyway—did we not pledge to keep our country a safe space for all who wanted to achieve their American dream? And while the Sun—baby burner and grandfather eater—still gets to roam outside, knowing all that he has done?
Of course, I must take some time to condemn the australian (australia is not real, so no capitalization ), crocodiles, who are vile in both visage and personality.
Has our history classes and literature not reminded us of the memories of tragedy? While memories may always be more vivid and effective than language, lessons in history and books on the past will always be there to remind others of the horrors of war.
Yet, many, with an apathetic enthusiasm, as an entertained spectator, remain complacent or ignorant when wars unfold around the world.
Perhaps, in the future, we recognize ourselves as the true villains of the crocodile war, and question ourselves, “If we knew we were on the wrong side of history, how did we let it happen?” And then throw ourselves into yet another conflict.
For more about Albert (https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2024/03/16/NY-Hamburg-alligator/5011710620175/)
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ReplyDeleteHi Bill! I have to disagree with your statement that crocodiles and alligators are "basically the same species anyway." While they are descendants of a shared common ancestor that existed about 100.5 million years ago towards the end of the cretaceous period, modern day crocodiles and alligators cannot be regarded as the same species by use of any species concept. According to the biological species concept, which defines a species as a group that can successfully interbreed and produce fertile offspring, crocodiles and alligators would be considered separate species due to the fact that they cannot successfully hybridize, as they experience habitat and gametic isolation. According to the ecological species concept, which defines a species as a group that shares an environmental niche, crocodiles and alligators would be considered separate species due to the fact that occupy different ecological niches (crocodiles live in saltwater or brackish water while alligators live in freshwater). Knowing that alligators are darker in color than crocodiles, that alligators have a u-shaped snout while crocodiles have a v-shaped shaped snout, and alligators have teeth that cannot be seen when their jaws are closed while crocodiles have teeth that protrude out of their mouths even when their jaws are closed is helpful in differentiating between alligators and crocodiles.
ReplyDeleteHi Bill! Your blog brings an extremely controversial important issue to light— whether alligators can be considered friend or foe. While the average person considers an alligator to be “slightly dangerous,” it’s important to remember that humans are susceptible to unfair judgments as well. For example, most people consider sharks to be highly vicious and dangerous creatures, when in reality, you are two times more likely to die in a vending machine incident than from a shark attack. Nevertheless, people still approach vending machines fearlessly everyday while they refrain from going surfing because they fear sharks. People often judge animals based on their appearance, and this is definitely a form of prejudice that’s important to talk about. The average American is scared of snakes, when most snakes are often calm and caring creatures that will never attack unless they are provoked. So unless you’re going around throwing rocks at snakes in your free time, you have nothing to worry about. An animal that most people consider “majestic” and “calming” is the flamingo, and while I agree that flamingos are magnificent creatures that are always fun to watch, most people don’t know that flamingos are highly aggressive ceratures that are fond of attacking animals of a smaller size simply to assert their dominance. Animal prejudice is a real problem, since peaceful looking animals being aggressive seems to never be a problem, but alligators and sharks will forever be known as the vicious monsters people perceive them as.
ReplyDeleteHello Bill! I want to preface this by saying that alligators are absolutely amazing creatures. Imagine being so successful in life that nature doesn't change your genetic template very much for over 300 million years. I think that their attitude towards life is something that I can agree with as well. What I wouldn't give to be an alligator and chill in a river while its baking hot outside and do cool stuff like paddle up and down the swamp, eat fish and small mammals, and scare off flocks of ducks on MY pond. I would only hope to not be involved in any of the alligator vs. alligator fights out in the everglades or anywhere else for that matter because it gets really nasty. Personally, I've had many positive experiences with alligators when we had cold feet moving to Florida in the summer between 9th and 10th grade. I had so much fun jumping over them with my little brother and running circles around them. They'd eventually get dizzy so we would sometimes trick them to getting back in the water. We only did that to the smaller ones though because the bigger ones were simply too majestic to care. We sunbathed with them and maybe they thought we were too crazy to eat so we lived in peace. It was heaven on earth. I feel that those alligators were wronged because I can completely agree that they are gentle animals as long as you didn't rile them up too much. But then again, I wouldn't think it would be a very good idea to let kids around full grown alligators because they would see a snack, and because alligators or crocodiles can't really differentiate between friend and food. They're beautiful creatures that deserve to exist free and wild, outside of the influence of humans, because it would be mutually beneficial for them to be separate. I think I regret what I did with the crocodiles at Florida because it normalizes the crocodiles to humans, which should never happen because they should not interact with us in any aspect, lest they eat us and they are hunted to extinction. I think that my experiences were sort of a lesson for met that gave me a strong respect for these beautiful creatures, but a reminder why they cannot coexist with us.
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