Yes It’s True: We really are our own worst enemies

“We have met the enemy and he is us.” — Walt Kelly, in “Pogo”

The above quote is perhaps among the top three for me, alongside George Carlin’s “Nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care” and Georges Santayana’s “Those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it.”

It’s popular with me because I can’t resist using it, especially when I see, hear and read about prime examples. 

It was about two decades ago that I covered a presentation by a Michigan State Police Trooper who asserted the majority of traffic crashes and fatalities are caused by poor and stupid decisions made by motorists. Even worse, he wasn’t really talking about just those unfortunate occurrences, such as icy roads and poor visibility.

The trooper maintained that fatal traffic crashes were the result of:

• Drivers who were influenced too much by alcohol or drugs.
• Distracted driving, which includes cell phone use, texting and the overlooked and vastly underreported billboards that command our attention to somewhere other than the roadway.
• Driving too fast, for conditions or simply too fast so that when something arises, it’s too late to implement corrections.
• Not using a seatbelt, which was the impetus for me bringing this up yet again. I read of several incidences this past week about drivers or even passengers who were ejected from their vehicles just before they died.

In every one of these examples, the motorist and/or passengers made really bad choices and it cost them dearly.

But there’s another arena in which Walt Kelly’s quote applies, and it’s every bit as sad and devastating. I speak of the plethora of accounts of dogs and cats on death row because we humans didn’t partake of an ounce or prevention.

I’ve seen and read about so many pet owners who fail to get their dogs and cats spayed or neutered, which just about everybody knows has led to the massive problem with pet overpopulation. The problem doesn’t end well for too many of these innocent victims. It’s difficult enough to put down these wonderful animals and it’s far worse when they have to die despite not being old and not being gravely ill.

I hear tell many pet owners actually want their female dogs or cats to have at least one litter, believing it to be wonderful thing. Maybe they can find forever homes for these pets, but in the meantime there are far too many more that are humanely killed because they have no home.

Bob Barker, longtime beloved host of the game show “The Price Is Right,” used to end each broadcast by telling viewers to get their pets spayed or neutered. I hear tell his successor, Drew Carey, does the same.

I can’t think of better advice offered every weekday to us in our living rooms.

I could offer examples of people who vote for politicians who do nothing for common everyday working stiffs, but that would open a different can or worms.