A Tale of Two Cultures

Texas is a study in extremes, climate, people and the social culture are variables that continue to surprise people as they travel across the state.

Two Texas sized incidents illustrate my point.

Texas City is located in the Houston metro area and is an industrialized, unionized city with about forty thousand residents. Mason County, on the other hand is located in central Texas, is mainly agriculture and has a population of around four thousand people. And that explains the different events that happened recently.

Earlier this year four pit bulls in Texas City broke through a fence and killed the neighbors beagle. That's a terrible thing to have happen and the neighbor was almost certainly upset when their pet was killed by the owners dogs. Rather than apologizing for the event and making restitution, the pit bull owner has now sued the neighbor for "failing to securely confine and restrict the beagle". In short she wants to be paid for her failure to keep her dogs from invading the neighbors property and causing the death of the beagle. In my mind the owner is a perfect example of the "gimme society" that the politicians are trying to encourage with their blatant disregard of humanity and common sense.

Up in Mason County a local rancher acquired a beagle mix dog from the animal pound and about four months later the dog proved that good deeds are worth while. The rancher was experiencing chest pains and difficulty breathing and the ambulance crew decided to transport him to the nearest hospital, about ninety minutes away. About twenty miles into the run the ambulance was flagged down and told that there was a dog riding on the side step of the ambulance.

The dog, named Buddy, had decided that his owner/companion was important enough to him to justify the dangerous ride on the ambulance step. Rather than kicking the dog off, to fend for himself the crew brought Buddy inside to be with his owner and informed the hospital by radio what had happened. To its credit the hospital admitted both owner and dog and both are now reported to be safely (and happily) home.

Culture does indeed make a difference and I'll take the culture of Mason County Texas over the culture of Texas City any time.