One of the things that I do each and every day is to read the news quips or headlines that are shown by AOL as being the day’s news.  Sometimes I am entertained by these news stories and sometimes I just have to go outside and cuss at my oak tree.  I use the oak tree as a sounding board simply because he doesn’t talk back and if I curse outside the neighbors can get a sense of the mood I am in for the day.

I just read where the estate of a woman killed in a Cracker Barrel Restaurant is suing the restaurant because they failed to properly protect her from her estranged husband.  Apparently she and her children were eating in the restaurant when the husband came in and showed some degree of displeasure with the situation.  He left, came back armed and killed the whole bunch.  He was subsequently killed by the responding authorities.  I feel sorry for the family and feel that the husband probably got what he deserved.  However, even with my imagination, which is an active one, I , for the life of me, cannot understand why the restaurant would be considered responsible.  I can see where a person might think they were liable for tooth decay in children because of the displays of GOO-Goo bars, Mallow bars, etc but how are they going to protect someone from being shot by an irate family member?  I have eaten at many Cracker Barrels and I have yet to see a waitress or waiter that would make me feel comfortable if I knew they were “packing heat”.  What if you don’t demonstrate proper tone of voice when telling a waiter/waitress that they screwed up on your chicken and dumpling order.  What if they whip out a 38 and start firing at you.  Do I draw my 40. cal and start firing back. I can see this situation regressing to the era of the western saloon where you see a gunfight every night you stepped thru the batwing doors. 

We can only expect someone else to protect us under certain circumstances.  We should expect the government to inspect our meat and food supply.  We can expect that our manufacturers should make sure their product doesn’t blow up when we turn on the key.  We should expect that our Doctors should do us no harm in their pursuit to cure our ailments.  However, all these folks are human.  They make mistakes.  We should not make a career out of finding ways to hold other people accountable for things that come up in our lives.  We should protect ourselves and the lives of our loved ones as best we can. 

Chuy the independent