Tipping Cows

One early evening about 15 years ago, I stood in front of an Arizona classroom enjoying a break in a two-hour archaeology class. I forget the thread of the conversation that preceded it, but at one point a student started talking about tipping cows in rural areas not far from his Chicago home.

Another student, obviously another city boy, listened in wide-eyed wonder. "Really?", he asked. "I've always heard those stories and wondered if they were true." I started to intervene, but remembered Dale Carnegie's warning of the price in lost friendship one may pay for winning an argument with a colleague.

I wanted to say, "Cows? We're going to talk about cows? I grew up with cows. I was raised on a dairy farm. I know something about cows! I milked cows every morning before school and every afternoon before supper. I have shoveled their manure and pitched their hay. I have sprayed their flies, washed their udders before milking, tended their wounds when they cut themselves on a barbed wire fence, reaching for the always-greener grass on the other side.

"I have led cows to the bull's pen when it was time for breeding. I have assisted young cows experiencing problems with the birth of their first calf. I have picked corn for them and stood for hours in attendance of a hammer mill, grinding the corn to make the feed that was their reward for standing patiently in their stalls during milking time.

"I have cared for cows and their calves in every imaginable way. As a small boy, I watched a young calf wander onto the frozen surface of a little pond. Before my mother or I could intervene, the ice broke and suddenly all that was seen of the calf was its nostrils and its panic filled eyes held above the icy water. We were unable to rescue the calf and by the time adult male help arrived, the animal was nearly frozen. It shivered so violently its whole body shook.

"My father carried the calf back to the barn where it was sheltered from the bitterly cold wind. He built a fire and heated bricks which we wrapped in burlap bags and stacked against the calf's body. He continued this far into the night, until he, too, was cold and exhausted.

"The next morning I ran to the barn to check on the calf. When I opened the door I was nearly bowled over by the escaping calf, as lively and frisky as ever.

Cows? Yes, I know somethng about cows, but apparently not everything. For example. I have never seen a cow sleeping while standing. Horses sleep standing up. Cows lie down to sleep. And, I have never seen a cow so sound asleep that you could sneak up on it. You can walk into a pasture full of cows in the middle of the night and every one of them will be alert and watching you... not with hostility, but rather with curiosity, trying to determine if you are hostile.

You cannot just walk over and scratch the back of a cow's head, either. If you walk up to a cow that is lying on the ground, it will immediately stand.

I wanted to say that "tipping cows" is the product of some cartoonist's imagination, and a subject for a bragging 19-year-old city boy. But, I was there to learn a little about archaeology, not to embarrass a fellow student. I said nothing.

Obama's Tricks.

Recent political news has enlightened the world as to the attitudes of Rev. Jeremiah Wright toward White America (as though that were a place!)

I'll be the first to acknowledge that a lot of Africans were treated badly on American soil. And, that a lot of non-African Americans still hold some sort of grudge against anyone who seems to have African heritage. (I, personally, believe we all have African heritage, but that is for another discussion.)

Not all Americans hold that hatred in their hearts, and for those of us who do not, it is easy to assume the haters, black or white, are largely uneducated bigots. So, it is curious to see someone with a Doctorate who does hate. Wondering exactly where Obama, himself, stands on the subject, I read his book, "Dreams From My Father".

In the book, Obama reveals a deep-seated, life long resentment of all white people. Recounting that his own white mother once asked about the arrest of one of his friends (what mother wouldn't ask if her son's friend was arrested?), Obama said (page 94) "I had given her a reassuring smile and patted her hand - - - another one of those tricks I had learned: People were satisfied so long as you were courteous and smiled and made no sudden moves. They were more than satisfied; they were relieved--such a pleasant surprise to find a well-mannered young black man who didn't seem angry all the time."

Smiling and not appearing angry is just a trick?

Out on the campaign trail, Senator Obama is patting a lot of hands and smiling a lot. Seems the trick still works.

"A Walk To Beautiful"

This past week, the PBS Science Program "Nova" aired a program titled "A Walk To Beautiful". It was about young women in Ethiopia receiving care at a Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa.
Essentially the story was about very young girls, starting at around age nine, who are required to perform very strenuous labor.
Okay, that is a bad thing - against the law, in fact, in the United States. But that is only the first step. A worse fate awaits these girls. Forced to marry at this age, they become pregnant before their bodies are developed. The result of the pregnancy and birth is severe tissue damage. In the case of the girl whose story was the feature of the program, the fistula was a rip in the tissues dividing her colon, bladder and vaginal canal. (Forgive me if my medical terms are not exact.) While it may turn your stomach, it is easy to imagine the results of this injury.
When her body attempted to deliver, it was impossible. After five days in labor the infant died, but was still not delivered. Unbelievably, this child received no sympathy from her family. Instead she was reviled and forced to live in a lean-to she had constructed on the back of her family's house.
Finally, through some miraculous turn of events, she was directed to the Fistula Hospital, a 23-hour journey by bus and by foot.
There, caring medical professionals performed several surgeries and managed to restore her health.
"Normal" again, this little girl refused to return to her home where she had been treated so badly. Instead she went to another African city where she was given a home and employed as a sort of nanny caring for orphaned children, mostly by parents who died from AIDS.
I must tell you that I have four sisters, three daughters and seven grand daughters. I happen to believe that little girls are the most fragile and most precious segment of human existence. I shed a good many tears watching "A Walk To Beautiful".
At the end of the program, I was very angry, as I imagine many of this particular program's viewers were. I was angry at a culture that permits such treatment of its children. Angry at the adults who commit these crimes. Angry at a government that cannot protect its most vulnerable citizens.
And, I have to tell you that I was also angry at one political candidate's wife who said she had never been proud of her country.
Don't get me wrong, I know abuses occur in our country. But they are not the norm. They are against the law. Perpetrators who are identified are sent to jail.
Anyone who is not proud of a country that makes a noble effort on behalf of its children is sadly out of touch with reality.