If I was a turtle…

By Bob Zettler

July 14, 2014

My tale has no end, or answer and just might stir up a more than a few of you.

I was driving home from an overnight fishing trip on Sunday when in the road ahead was a turtle just about to leave the limited security of the double yellow lines running down the middle of the road. Now at first and in the distance I didn’t know it was a turtle and could have been either trash someone threw out or another dead critter, victim to a previous motorist, who either didn’t react in time, couldn’t react in time or simply didn’t care. But this was a live turtle simply going about his or her life by crossing a man made rural highway to eventually make it to its destination.

It was a fair size turtle by turtle standards (I’m no expert but it was maybe an 8” shell) and as I came upon him and his moment of crossing over into what we refer to as “MY lane” he seemed to pause with one leg up in the air as I went by mere inches away at 55 MPH. It was if he understood that his decision to continue forward or back the way it came could result in his doom. I know, that’s akin to Anthropomorphism but I have been extremely unsettled for the last week after viewing two videos on FaceBook but I digress.

My first thought was I could pull over (after I passed him) to the side of the road (there was no shoulder to speak of) and pick him up and place him safely on the other side of the road but I was reminded of the potential dire consequences of my doing so. How so? There has been several news stories recently about a woman who stopped to assist a Momma duck and her ducklings cross a road safely that led to the death of a human and now she has been convicted of “criminal negligence causing death and two counts of dangerous driving causing death.” Now I hadn’t read the stories, just the headline and a brief intro on Google News, but several people in the forums I frequent have commented she was getting what she deserved by putting the ducks well-being ahead of the potential harm her doing so could open the opportunity for someone else to make a mistake and have an accident.

The one video I saw on FaceBook I believe contained the catch phrase, “Don’t Text and Drive” or something similar, which is what caught my attention as I have been known to answer texts while driving. I was not expecting to see what I saw and am not sure what I saw as it was on my cell with no sound. I believe it showed a number of people who were involved in a traffic accident but I cannot say with any certainty how many as one object was so mangled it could have been an animal or…God only knows. What struck me was how absolutely mangled the victims were. Again, I do not know if they were in the vehicle involved, pedestrians or even from another vehicle. It was in broad daylight and the people appeared Asian on a modern road. The front of the one vehicle – there could have been another but I will never know as I quit watching the video – was missing the front end and I could not tell if there was another person still inside or if that was a baby-seat…it was that bad.

The one woman wasn’t bloody but she looked like a ragdoll with all of her extremities turned this way and that. As for the others, I won’t begin to describe as it was awful since she and one other were still alive but for how much longer is anyone’s guess. What struck me as odd was there were maybe ten or so people standing around, emergency crews must not have arrived yet, and not one of them were offering comfort or assistance to any of the victims, yet several were walking around videoing the scene…

The other video I saw was several weeks ago and for the life of me I do not know who shared it nor what so-called “news service” had it on their website. What it did show was horrendous and something most of us in America and in the other so-called civilized countries have not experienced (thankfully), nor witnessed (also thankfully).

In this video, which was actually made by one of the individuals involved with his cell phone camera, you see a number of people who are suppose to be Arabs either in Syria or Iraq. They are not in any uniforms that I can tell but their prisoners appear to be, or at least were dressed that way. There are at least four or more men with automatic rifles and they literally start spraying the live prisoners on the ground with bullets. Then, the one man takes out a knife and proceeds to begin cutting the head off one prisoner who had survived the initial bullet barrage while several of the other men with guns take out their cell phones to also video the process. You see the victim’s face and realize he is conscious as his eyes appear, even in shock from the multiple bullet wounds, to plead with his murderer and…well, I didn’t finish watching that video either.

There is part of me now that wishes I had never watched that particular video. I just cannot comprehend how any human being could act this way. I wish it would just go away like it never happened but I know it did and will probably continue in places around this world. This man who was someone’s son and maybe someone’s Father or partner, will never breathe another breath and his last moments on earth must have been indescribable.

As for the men who shot him and his fellow prisoners, with one of them taking such joy in cutting off his head while the rest videoed it, they too were someone’s sons and quite possibly a Father or husband but what kind of person could do that to another? And it wasn’t just the one person; there was a group of them involved.

Now that video had possibly been shot sometime ago but who knows or cares as it wasn’t made in Hollywood and it actually happened to a number of nameless human beings. But when I go to the news on CNN, FOX or the rest, I see no mention of this atrocity. No, I see stories about events where reporters have open access for the most part but that is the way the game is played and doesn’t concern me as much as the mentality involved that allows people to perform these acts of atrocity.

It brings me to an old fable that most everyone has heard or read. You know the one. Even though there are several variations of the parable of the Scorpion and the Turtle crossing the river but most ends with, "It has nothing to do with logic," the drowning scorpion sadly replied. "It's just my character."

This is the part that scares me, "It's just my character."

Now, I know this is a parable and the individuals who slaughtered their prisoners and videoed themselves doing it and then sharing with the world isn’t representative of any group of people but it just plum scares the Hell out of me. Throw in the people who stood around as accident victims lay helpless and most likely dying while several videoed the victims instead of offering comfort or aid and I can’t help but wonder where we are headed. I fear for my children. Hell, I fear for the children in those countries and around the world where we preach the best of intentions but many times practice something altogether different.

All these thoughts ran through my head as I continued on home leaving behind that turtle simply crossing a road. And now I fear that for me too, "It's just my character."