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Common Elements of Every Swamp: Rot, Decay, Slime, Scum and Deadly Creatures and Snakes
We were lifelong natives of South Louisiana until our recent move to Florida so we can state with total humility that we know a little something about swamps, as much of that part of the USA is built near, in, on, or close to a real, not figurative, swamp. There is a very old joke about Louisiana, prompted by its “wide-open” brand of politics, especially prevalent during the time of Edwin Edwards, which defines Louisiana as a place where half the state is under water and the other half is under indictment!
Sad but true, and another truism that might be uniquely timely in these troubled days is the fact that all swamps have certain elements in common, such as:
- Rot
- Decay
- Slime
- Deadly Creatures
- Snakes
Our former home in Baton Rouge was about six blocks from a small swampy area known as Bluebonnet Swamp and much of the public library in that area fronted on one edge of that swamp. Additionally, we were about a one-hour drive from one of the largest swamps in America, the Atchafalaya Basin Swamp, a tour of which with anyone but a certified guide very familiar with the area will point out another common feature of all swamps. One can get lost very quickly in a swamp, even if in broad daylight with all of one’s wits about them. Here’s a representative photo of a little piece of this swamp:
And here is one of those creatures which make swamps like this so dangerous:
This points to another similarity that all “swamp critters” have in common: they are animals or reptiles or serpents. they obviously have no moral compunction whatsoever about killing a victim.
We will now discuss with reference to another Swamp, killing his reputation, his family, his home, his future, or his children’s future. In that swamp, most ironically located in our nation’s capital, named in honor of one of the greatest, most honorable, most honest, most straightforward Americans who ever lived, the similarities are remarkable:
- Rot: see, e.g., the Clintons, Obama, Schumer, Comey, Brennan, Clapper, McCabe, Biden, Harris, etc., etc., etc.
- Decay: see, e.g., Pelosi, Biden, Leahy, Feinstein, etc., etc., etc.
- Slime: see, e.g., Biden, Hunter; Biden, James; Biden, Joe; Clinton, Bill; Clinton, Hillary; Psaki, Jen; Sullivan, Jake; Obama, Barack; Obama, Michelle; Jarrett, Valerie; Rice, Susan
- Deadly Creatures: all of the above
- Snakes: All of the above, plus: Sztrok, Peter; Page, Lisa; Sussman, Michael; Cheney, Liz; Romney, Mitt; every single juror in the Sussman trial; Judge [ ] (ethics – that quaint ancient concept- inhibits me from naming him, as I am still a licensed attorney)
From the moment I learned of the verdict in the Sussman case, I have been unable to get these images out of my head and I kept thinking of the way we casually throw around the nickname “The Swamp” without realizing the many ways it is indeed so similar to the actual swamps we have lived around all our lives in South Louisiana.
Should anyone have any lingering doubts about why it is so hard to recruit good, solid, honest citizens to go to work for us and represent us in our nation’s capital, just take another look at that dramatis personae and ask yourself what level of sheer, strong, unadulterated courage it would take to expose your family to the treachery of such creatures?
Is there hope for America with this pool of evil now effectively running our national government? Absolutely — but only if there is a deep, far-reaching change in our culture in which we, once again, hold liars and inside dealers and thoroughly amoral creatures like Hillary Clinton accountable and no longer reward them with promotions, mansions, book deals, and influence we “proles,” in the term of Orwell’s 1984, could never dream of. One midterm and one Presidential election will be a great — and, hopefully, joyful! — start but it’s going to take a lot more to clear out these entrenched serpents from their nesting places.
God Bless America!
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Unfortunately, I think you describe our current situation very well.
You could come up with a few more Republicans because their docile enabling behavior makes the Democrat swamp creatures’ lives and their evil deeds so much easier. And I’m certain there are a few full-fledged Republican swamp creatures reaping ill-gotten rewards.
Some Republicans might be nutrias or possums.
I know of one who might be a turtle.
ça c’est bon! très bon! :-)
How many seconds walking in a swamp does it take to realize you’re just gonna get dirty? Actually, with but half a brain – you know it before you step in it.
My father left Georgia to never return after my parents divorced during WWII. He settled, as best I can determine, in Lake Charles, married again, and had two daughters, my half-sisters. He died in 1960, the family talk back in Georgia was that he might have had connections with some unsavory characters, his death was suicide. I am told he worked in accounting but he was probably surrounded by swamp characters if the pictures I get from reading James Lee Burke are realistic. That about completes my knowledge of the bayou but the swamp in Washington, DC carries its own unbeatable reputation for unsavory.
Thank you, Bob; what an interesting story! Your comment really struck a chord with me as James Lee Burke is one of our favorites and, for me, it is not only because he is such an amazing artist with descriptions of these areas around South Louisiana but his hometown was one of the towns I grew up in, New Iberia. Our little house was on the main highway near town across the street from The Shadows, an ancient mansion which he features under another name in some of this novels. Of course, as a James Lee Burke fan, you know that Robicheaux operates as a Deputy Sheriff out of the New Iberia office. As a matter of fact one of my very favorite of his novels was In The Electric Mist with the Confederate Dead which, as I recall, featured an area in that vicinity known as Spanish Lake, a small area of swamp near the town. Coincidentally, I started to put that in the post with maybe a few passages from that novel but decided not to. Before I started this response, I went back and looked back at some of the reviews of this novel and saw that several fans said it was Burke’s best and one or two said it was one of the best mystery novels they had ever read! Thanks for the note and for the book lovers among the Ricochetti here is the cover of the novel:
Sincerely, Jim
Since you added to this, I will. My father shot himself in late December, 1959 after receiving a Christmas card from his siblings in Athens, Georgia informing him of the sudden death of my mother on December 5. He was unemployed at the time and reportedly suffering some depression. I think the 2 daughters were about 10 and 5. I know but little.
I haven’t read all his work so I still have some to look forward to. I always like to delve into an artist’s life just as a curious pleasure. Burke really goes deep into life in Southern Louisiana and I find that contrast to other parts of the country very interesting. I now live in Utah where my daughter and her husband do many different things, one of which is raising thoroughbred race horses and longhorn cattle on their ranch here. I know Burke has a ranch in Montana and I think he plays a little guitar. My son is a performance artist and teacher of guitar and my wife and I have an investment in that. I’ve strayed a little off topic here to provide illustrations of the importance of our American value related to individual liberty as it is vital to the aspirations of the people to think, speak, and act freely.
There is no way the top in the largest most complex society and economy in human history can clean itself up and get serious about the nation for the simple reason it can’t even see the bottom, let alone understand it, or the middle for that matter. The top will run matters for itself and to do so it has to compromise with others at the top, and with time they become fewer until it just rots and the nation ends.
Things keep going the way they are, I think we might want to consider a congressional resolution to repeal the Joint Resolution (H.R. 8) of 05 Mar 1838, outlawing dueling in the District of Columbia in 1839. Of course, given the current croup of “soy-boys”, “4th wave feminist”, and anyone else of undeterminable gender and/or sexual orientation, I doubt we would find many takers. Still, there was a time when new congress members were advised that when they went to Washington, to pack their dueling pistols with their law books, and keep up with their swords training.
My version of replacement theory