Turning up the flame on the simmering pot.

                                  Turning up the flame on a simmering pot.

    At sixty- seven years of age, and living in retirement in Florida, you would think my native Hibernian temperament had softened somewhat. Not a chance! Daily, I am in near dukes-up mode when some insensitive clod intrudes on my, or my family’s, otherwise serene and pastoral demeanor.

      Perhaps too, it is the ingrained nature of a born scrapper who had grown up in the blue collar environs of South Buffalo, New York. Growing up in Buffalo is similar to stories I have read about the wild west of America during the 1800’s. Not too many of us actually carried guns, or settled an argument with them, but fisiti-cuffs were not uncommon in settling minor disputes.

       There was a universally practiced code of honor though that regulated our behavior. Anyone insulting or threatening your family got the thrashing that they deserved. Never mind if someone had to spend a few nights in the pokey, until matters got straightened out, by cooler heads.

       And if this type of behavior seems a bit harsh, it merely reflects the philosophy of our own government at large, in dealing with its international neighbors. America always has to be ready to defend its people, regardless of the size or power of its opponent. The strategy is called the “Mutually Assured Destruction” scenario. Potential attackers have to understand and accept the fact that if you threaten America, we can and will bomb an opponent back to the stone-age, in defending our own. The rationale is that even the baddest actors will weigh their own fates first, before striking at the people of the United States. It doesn’t seem to work too well currently with suicidal, religious fanatics, but at some point their controllers will get the message or cease to exist.

         And whether it is my Hibernian genes, or the environmental conditioning, of a rough and tumble former frontier town like Buffalo, the emotional pot is always on simmer. Apply a little heat and the pot rapidly comes to a boiling froth.

         It was this way in the neighborhood too. If the block bully thought he could push you around, you were in for it on a regular basis. If you delivered a good-sized whack on the bully’s snout, a few times in defense, you might not win the encounter, but the next time, they usually then went after easier prey. These were valuable lessons, learned early in life, by all of the neighborhood urchins. I have used this strategy of defense many times in the ensuing years.

         I remember one eight-term congressman who got a little aggressive in a political strategy discussion. After verbally  singing his tail feathers a bit, he never again challenged me in an unkind manner. Similarly a former Majority leader of the N.Y State Assembly, famous for his temper tantrums and “heavy breathing” to control them, got into my face one day. I let him have it with both barrels. All he could think to do was run to my boss and whine about disrespectful employees. In a word, screw him! He would never have survived in South Buffalo.

          Other disputes, including a few famous encounters with Mayors and County executives, I didn’t make out too well. But at least I was in there, face to face, making my point, That usually averted any similar future incursions. Sometimes, you jus have to say what needs saying and take the consequences, whichever way they come. Edgar Allen Poe got it right in his wonderful short story,  “The Cask of Amontillado.” “Nemo me impune lacessit” (No one injures me with impunity.)

          Even today, I find such aggressive behavior in the docile environs of golf courses in South Florida. A few clowns playing behind us sometimes get a little rash in pushing us, when we can’t go any faster, due to slow players ahead of us. I have always thought to myself, especially after “discussing the matter face to face” with the miscreants, ‘what makes you think I won’t come back and drag you from your cart for a good thrashing, when you hit balls at my wife and I?’  I really don’t understand their risky behavior. Perhaps, they come from milder environments, where face-to-face discussion, over a controversy, don’t often take place. In a word, screw that! Right, Brother Poe?

          Usually I am a much-controlled and polite individual to everyone with whom I deal. Principally, because I have found that most people are wonderful, caring individuals who would go to any lengths to help friends and family. And then, there are of course “the others.” Loud voices and/or threatening behavior usually doesn’t solve anything. But, what is good for the United States Government works for me. Sometimes, the potential varlets just have to be aware that they might be walking into a working buzz saw when they act in an uncivil manner. And for that temperament, I give Thanks to those wiley Hibernians, from whom I am descended, and all of the fine people that I knew growing up in Buffalo and Western New York.

            Most of us will never make the social register, but bullies and other miscreants now usually look for easier prey rather than come our way. And our families and friends are much safer for it as well.

                                      -30-

                                (892 words)

                             Joseph Xavier Martin