Birds of a Feather Don't Always Flock Together

Well, it is late March, and the folks of Refugio County are mourning their loss of one of their main attractions, the Whooping Cranes on the Aransas Refuge.

The Whoopers are preparing to make their annual return to Canada, fi they haven't already flown the coop, so to speak.

They'll be missed for there's no telling how many visitors the Whoopers attract during the winter months. (There are, we suspect, millions of bird watchers worldwide, thousands in Texas alone.)

But most of us will be staying put, in south Texas or wherever we happen to live currently.

There has to be a lesson learned in the Whooper departure. Otherwise, what's the reason for there being around other than as a tourist attraction?

Well, usually the birds flock together, as do people.

Thus, one strongly suspects that most Refugians voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.

But not all. Unlike the ones that fly in the sky, we "birds " that walk on earth don't always flock together.

And it says here, "That's a good thing. How dull it would be if we always acted alike and thought alike, much less voted alike! We'd literally be bored to death.

Yes. we are different!

We have different takes, we don't always speak the same language, and even when our language is the same we don't always speak or use that language in the same way.

Little wonder we vote differently.

How or why does that happen?

First, of all there's our family background. Mine growing up was not the same as the others I grew up with; each of our home settings was different, with parents and others influencing us in different ways. Most often, if our parents were of one political persuasion, that persuasion will also be ours. So, as much as we'd like to think otherwise, we're not always our own thinkers; for we're children who have had our own unique upbringings.

Other factors may also influence our thinking and doing growing up, our teachers, our preachers and Sunday School teachers, the families of our best friends, so forth and so on.

Then, of course, if and where we attend college can have a huge impact on us, as can how we assimilate the methods of our professors and the content of our courses. (Those who major in the sciences have quite different exposures in their collegiate experience than do those whose main focus in on other studies.}

But even if in the above respects, we share a great deal, each of us turns out to be special, or shall I say, we become our individual "self."

Some among us take great pride in being different. Others among us take great pride in agreeing with most other people, especially with the majority

So, it is some of us turn out to be very unique in our politics; others of us simply fall in line,

None of us welcomes change. "We're stuck in Aransas!" you might say.