Yesterday I went wading on the nearest Gulf coast beach, wandering off to the far end in the rocky, marshy area. The little waves were no larger than a large lake on a calm day, and the water is shallow for a long way out from shore. I was the first to see a big hungry shark cruising slowly and seriously along in knee deep water, intently focused on lunch, huge fin always visible, no up and down motion, no blow hole, occasional boiling water when it found something and twisted around to snap at it.
As it glided around to where others could see its tall straight fin, I saw people wading out to get a closer look at the "dolphin". I called out, "That's a shark!" Someone nearby said no, that's a dolphin. As it cruised further down the beach, more and more people were wading out to ogle, until the water was crowded with many families of holiday beachgoers. I waded along, following the shark but staying behind all the gawkers.
Along the way, I called out to a father whose small child had gotten about ten or twenty feet from the shark as it was swirling around to attack a fish: "You know that's a shark." He said, "No, I don't think so. It's a dolphin."
I have been around dolphins. They cannot help themselves in their joy to be near humans. They always want to put on a show. They whistle and chirp and jump around in joy. And they don't like shallow water. Clearly this was no dolphin.
At the other end of the beach I stopped to talk to another father. His little boy happily called out to the world, "I got to see a dolphin on my birthday!" I corrected him, "You got to see a shark on your birthday." He heard me but the concept didn't register. He had no idea who I was or whether he should trust what I said when everyone around him said differently. A few seconds later he was still excited: "I saw a dolphin on my birthday!"
His father and I talked for a while about how to tell the difference between a shark and a dolphin. We saw another shark tail out further in the water. He agreed that they had no up and down motion so they were probably sharks. I also observed that there were signs saying not to wade out beyond a certain distance, and the shark had cruised by just past the signs. I wondered out loud if the park managers decided not to put shark warning signs out so that people would not be too frightened.
But then one of the father's family members who had waded way out to look closer said they saw the shark blow air, so he immediately switched and said then it must be a dolphin. I had watched both sharks the whole time and never once did I see either one blow air out the top of it's head, nor did they come up for air. If they HAD raised their heads, the people would have SEEN that they were sharks!
I walked away wondering if it was really possible for a dolphin to look and act just like a shark. When I got home, I looked it up and realized that all those people were in deep denial. They wanted to have a good day at the beach, and so for them it was a dolphin.
Reminds me of my role as a conspiracy "theorist". No one wants to think that there are individuals with money and power who could really care less about the people and are only looking out for themselves. They snack on children like so many slices of pizza, and are only too happy to make everyone think they are your benefactors while they bite huge chunks out of your every paycheck. And they expect huge profits from the mandatory vaccination program they are planning.
They also tell you every night on the news that the dolphins are the real sharks.
Make no mistake: These people are not your friends. They are sharks indeed!
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