Perspectives: Sam’s Perspective – On The Lighter Side

Hello, I’m Sam Jones.

It’s always refreshing when the news of the day brings a grin or a laugh. That happened to me a few days ago when three stories made news. Last week police released surveillance video of a break in, at the Dollar General store on South Sheridan road in Tulsa. In the video, a masked man wearing a red hoodie like a cape, smashed the glass in the front door and came into the store. This happened early and the store wasn’t open yet and inside a store employee subdued the masked man, then kicked him out of the store by way of the hole the intruder had made in the front door. Although I haven’t talked with the employee, I’ll bet you a burger and a beer that kick had to feel good to him. It felt good to me and I wasn’t even there.

That same day, a story came from the Sapulpa Herald newspaper that brought a grin. Seems they found a bobcat in the paper’s bathroom. Bobcats usually have a nasty disposition, especially when they’re cornered, and this one was defiantly cornered behind the toilet. They still don’t know how the animal got into the bathroom.

They had to bring in Oklahoma Wildlife Control to remove the animal, an adult male weighing between 25 and 30 pounds. He said the bobcat could kill an animal three times its size, so you can only imagine the damage it could have caused to a human with a copy of the newspaper intent on sitting on the porcelain throne. No injuries, just questions about how it got there. Finally, I came across a story in the paper just before Halloween about a family that was giving away costumes for children who needed one. But the story had been slugged on the second page, “House hands out more than candy for Halloween”. Being a political animal I immediately thought of our House of Representatives, known to many as the gang that can’t shoot straight.

And I sort of wondered what would happen if you took the funny elements from the previous stories and applied them to the legislature. For example next election instead of the usual results, voters kicked the boys wearing those little aluminum hats, back through the hole in the budget and brought in some folks that really want to help the people and the state, instead of special interests. Or maybe we just lock the doors to the capitol and put bobcats in all the bathrooms. Think we’d get any movement? Oh I know it’s silly but it could be funny. Meanwhile special interests outside of Oklahoma are laughing all the way to the bank while we live with budget shortages and that’s not funny.

And that’s my Perspective.