Killer wasps

I'm enjoying a pleasant, late summer lunch with a couple of friends. Despite two of my six kids bickering a bit, and the yard needing mowed, and a leaky faucet dripping, I'm pretty content. You might even say I've gotten a bit lazy, spending a lot of afternoons napping in my hammock.

We're joking around when I notice something different. We've been beset by the usual assortment of wasps and yellow jackets, but there's one here I've never seen before. I first notice it as I go to take a bite of my burger. This guy is nearly inside and is wrestling with a piece of meat that it has apparently chewed loose. Something about his manner convinces me to just let him have it. Hoping that will be the end of it, I go back to my conversation.

Suddenly, my friend Miguel leaps out of his seat with a look of terror on his face. We can't persuade him to sit down and for a couple of minutes, we can't even get him to speak coherently. He pulls us towards the house, ranting about his village. As far as I know, he's from LA. Finally we get him to take a breath and start over.

He tells us how, one spring when he was a boy, he journeyed to the nearest city with his uncle. It was a two day walk. When they returned home, everyone in the village was dead! No one was ever able to figure out what had happened, but there were puncture wounds on the bodies.

While we were eating and joking, a wasp had landed on his plate and it brought those horrible memories rushing back. He remembered seeing a few of these wasps before!  He had watched them building a nest in a tree stump once, when he was just a kid, and he is certain that it was the autumn before his trip to the city with his uncle!  He had never thought anything of it until now, but suddenly he was sure he knew what had happened to his village. Before that autumn, the people of his village had never seen those wasps, and he never saw them again-until now.

'What wasps?', our friend Alex keeps asking. Alex is an amateur naturalist, so he really knows his bugs. Overcome by curiosity, he goes back to the table and waits for one to appear. This guy is fearless. I've thought about nicknaming him 'plays-with-bees'. A few minutes later I see him slowly walking backwards, his face very pale. He makes a wide circle around the table and comes back to where we're waiting.

'You have really got a problem', he says. Turns out he had recently read about a particular species of killer wasp. Because they were supposed to be found only in Mexico, he hadn't paid too much attention. But he felt certain this was the same wasp.

According to him, this species of wasp was predatory, aggressive and more dangerous than killer bees! In late summer a few would search out a good location and set up a nest. Then, during the winter, deep inside the nest, the numbers would explode. In the spring, on the first warm day, they would come out en masse. They were very sensitive to any sort of vibration near their nest, even a voice, and would respond by swarming and attacking. Their sting carried a strong toxin that made it lethal. There was no antivenom.  As abruptly as they appeared, they would disappear. Then in late summer, far away, a few would appear and search out a new location and set up a nest. It was also reported that no known insecticide had any effect on them.

I'm usually pretty calm and logical, but I was starting to panic. That was partly because I was noticing that a few of these wasps were going in and out of a tree stump I hadn't gotten around to clearing out. The other reason is that the kids had started playing a rowdy game of tag and were running in all directions.

Now, let's pause a minute. What do you think I did next? Do you think I insisted that Miguel again give me all the details of the spring that all the people of his village had died? Do you think I spent much time debating whether he could really have remembered something he had seen just once, so many years ago? Do you suppose I demanded that Alex provide me the source of his information, or tell me what his credentials were?

Actually, I did, to some extent. And soon I was convinced that both of them knew what they were talking about, were being honest, and their stories were in sync.  Then I sprung into action!

Soon the kids were safely corralled and the three of us were using one of Alex's nets to catch and kill the wasps. By evening, we were pretty sure we'd gotten them all. Then I doused that stump and set it ablaze!! You see, it made a whole lot more sense to dive into danger and wipe them out while there were just a few, than to let their numbers explode and have it be impossible to overcome them.

The truth is, this didn't really happen. It's what we used to call a fable, and at the end of a fable was a moral. So, in case you didn't catch it, the moral is this:

It is better to dive into danger and tackle a situation when it is small, than to wait until it has grown to such proportions that even tremendous effort is unlikely to result in victory.

So, why did I create this fable? To encourage you to take action now, while it is possible to make a difference! I don't have time, in this post, to elaborate on what I am saying below. If you are just now hearing that there is a problem in America, please read my other posts for more explanation.

This administration has hijacked the country and is furiously building the framework for a new government. At the same time, forces are at work to destabilize things to the extent that this new government can seize power.

We are standing on the verge of anarchy. New corruption is being revealed every day. The old system is crumbling and it is too corrupt for us to go back to anyway. The new system being built is going to strip us of our rights and freedom to self-govern. If we allow it to continue, it may be impossible to ever defeat!

We must stop what the Obama administration is building, sweep the filth and corruption out of Washington, and reinstitute a stable form of government, free of corruption! And we must do it soon! This is urgent!

We are very vulnerable right now, and will continue to be, until we have established a stable government. Our international enemies are keenly watching our situation, forming alliances and moving into position to attack. Yes, it is very important to be sure you are getting sound, honest information. But it is also important, after you do, to move quickly!

PLEASE, quickly start doing your own research. Check the facts, find out what is going on. And as soon as you are convinced, dive in! Yes, there is danger now in resisting this but, if we wait, the danger will multiply exponentially and the chances for success will GREATLY diminish!

I see this situation as a cicada (a nasty, ugly beast , in my opinion). It has crawled up out of the ground in the darkness and is still encased in its cocoon/exoskeleton. It cracks and the nasty little beast emerges. It stretches and sits, and waits, while it dries out and hardens. Then it flies away--and good luck if you want to catch it then. You've got to catch it some time between when it emerges and when it's fully formed. This is a very small 'window of opportunity' that occurs in the dead of night.

So too, what is going on in our government today has been happening in darkness, but now light is shining on it and revealing the details. The window of opportunity to stop it is small. As soon as you are convinced, please act!

By no means am I advocating violence. We are being baited, in many ways, to do something that will allow them to justify taking drastic action--both against us and in seizing power. Please do not fall into that trap!

Be strong, be bold, be honest and speak out! Do whatever you can by legal means. Oppose every illegal, unconstitutional move they make. Surround them. Push back. Don't give in. Don't give up.

**We need our God and our guns--we need God always, and we need our guns, as a last line of defense if we are attacked by our international enemies. Our military personnel are spread far and wide, and are being depleted in the ongoing efforts in the middle East. We need our military back at home now, for our own defense. For that reason, please do all you can to help protect the 2nd amendment-our right to bear arms. An armed populace can be a powerful deterrent to foreign invasion!**