 The Yellow Rose and catfishing By Glen WILLARD |
Visions of good times that brought
so much pleasure
makes me want to go back again.
If it suddenly ended tomorrow,
I could somehow adjust to the fall.
Good times and riches and son
of a bitches,
I've seen more than I can recall...
...Changes In Attitudes, Changes In Latitudes,
Jimmy Buffet
Usually this page is the last one of this magazine that is done. I write it based on a topic that comes to mind during the approximate month that follows one issue of the UO's last print proof being delivered to the printer and the next. And usually the topic changes one or more times before pen (figuratively these days of course) is put to paper. The article is composed, already mostly, in my head at the time I finally write (thus, I usually describe almost immediately on our status reports that are issued regularly during the process of putting out the magazine that L&A is "In process". Something that I think was my secret until now.) This month's last chosen topic, however, which I won't detail, does not fit this moment's mood. So, I think I'll just "wing it".
So courtesy of KDLP radio somewhere in Texas comes the first topic "night fishing for catfish". The coarse voice of the country talking DJ just mentioned it. And yes, sometimes my computer, often actually, is tuned to a small country radio station in Texas. Based on the advertisers (hardware stores and such) and the towns they are in, I think the station is located in what we used to call "deep East" Texas. That is, if you lived in upper East Texas along the Sabine River bottom.
But first, the lines to the song from above. A confession here, both my former wife Carolyn (deceased, six and a half years now), the Yellow Rose (of Texas) and I are "Parrot Heads", that is, Jimmy Buffet fans. I say "are" because she still lives in me, my daughters and in the many she influenced in a too short life. And thus, the source of the title to this column from the Buffet album. And the country DJ and memories the source of the title to the article.
And my father, who would have been 83 yesterday April 23rd had he also not left us 30 years ago, taught me about night fishing for catfish. And about trotlines. And dangerous turtles. And many other things perhaps more important but not so fond in remembrance.
My first experiences in the world of catfishing, at least with trotlines at night, were along the Washita River ( the old Faux Quachita) in South central Oklahoma. Dad was stationed at Ardmore Air Force Base at the time and we were living in the little town named Gene Autry (Berwyn until renamed for the cowboy singer who had owned a nearby ranch). Gene Autry was near the Washita, which flowed out of the nearby Arbuckle Mountains. The Washita is a part of the Red River basin and the Washita along with the Quachita, the Red River and some others eventually wind into the "Big Muddy" and then some of its waters eventually pass into the Gulf of Mexico through the Archafalaya flood plains (Louisiana swamps). Archafalaya incidentally is pronounced something like Chef-a-lie-uh and was the name of a great Louisiana Cajun, country band (and you dance the Texas 2 step with a beer in one hand and a girl in the other in the beach bars and honky that sit by the highways along the blindingly white sand beaches of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle).
But anyway, it was on the small Washita that I first ran a trotline. Usually the catfish caught on those mornings following the night before weren't as large as many later caught on reel and rod tackle used on the ditchbanks of many another river, lake or reservoir. Ah, but the experiences of attaching the stinkbait to the 3 pronged hook and line set up on the trotline as the sun set and the excitement of later, near first light, of disengaging a 12 to 36 inch snapping turtle from one of them as you sit shakily in a small johnboat...memories.
On to more serious, or at least contemporary matters on my mind -
Illegal war and the United Nations and International Law. I read and hear a lot lately of an illegal war. It's in the newspapers, magazines and in articles and items I see on the Internet. The talk is of course about the recent military action in Iraq, which continues even now. I take serious issue with that description...the illegal I mean. And I think, no matter which side of the war issue one is on, for or against, where most people get in trouble, with me at least, is because of their misunderstanding of the meaning of the term international law and the meaning of the word illegal.
I think many think of international law as some type of super body of law that exists above all other law. And they have no comprehension of a body of law called Conflicts of Law. International Law is but one area of law among many others. It exists along side much other law. Included among such other areas of law, but not limited to those that are now mentioned are such bodies of law as (some inter weaving with and a part of others): Civil Law, Criminal Law, Maritime Law, Contract Law, Tort Law, Domestic Relations Law, Environmental Law, et al. International Law and Conflicts of Law are but two of these areas.
But when people seem to be talking of international law I get the impression they are thinking of an exalted set of laws and principles laid down that superimposes over all other law. In the current thinking by some then it seems that by not agreeing with the United Nations on the passage of a further resolution directed towards potential settlement efforts of the UN in the Iraq case and proceeding to military action without such approval the United States (I use United States here to include the UK and the other coalition partners for convenience and because it is the U.S. that catches most of negatives from its lack of approbation) has acted illegally and thus the war is illegal.
This cannot be so. Not, at least, in any meaningful way normally associated with an act that contravenes a law that has been passed by a legally constituted body superior to the actor. The UN is not even a legislative body. It is a group of nations gathered in a body by mutually assent. That body may make recommendations. It may, in fact, pass binding resolutions according to rules agreed to by the parties joined. The UN makes contributions to that body of law called International Law when it takes actions that are followed (or not followed) and either in current time or by historical passage of time and general acknowledgement or assent is accepted as such.
In only one sense can the United States action be deemed illegal. A secondary definition by Webster refers to illegal as "not authorized or sanctioned, as by rules". But, that generally (almost unanimously, in fact) is not this meaning of illegal that is contemplated by those who refer to an illegal war. Rather, it is the first meaning, the principle meaning and the meaning most understood in ordinary parlance that the term illegal is used. That principle definition is as in "prohibited by law; against the law". Thus, the U.S. has violated (broken) the law. It is in this meaning and understanding only that the U.S. becomes an outlaw nation. Horrors! Such, of course is not the case although if used properly (as in the second definition) there may be a technically correct meaning. But, that is not the case. Only the first definition is meant. And in this use, the users subject their ignorance (or their duplicity) to plain view.
I shan't get into the subject of conflicts of laws, agreements and understandings of parties, treaties, renvoi, law versus "law law" and so forth. But, my strong feeling is that when referring to the past (present) conflagration is that it serves no useful purpose other than to muddy the water to use silly terms. But, infantile debates, like that other disease, SARS, seem on the rise.
Meanwhile, back fishing on the ditchbank. Delivery of my three new Buffet albums is due from Amazon any day now.
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Read also previous issue' articles:
What it Was, Was Football
An American in Perish
The Baseball Way to Pleasure and Wisdom
What a Fine Mess
At My Table
The King is Gone- and So are You
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