There are lots of spiders in Estevan. Harmless, of course, but plentiful in number, and found all over the city.
Lots of people don't like spiders. People generally find spiders creepy and find the way they scurry and creep around disturbing.
So, unfortunately, people have been killing spiders like crazy. Crushing them with their boots, or possibly flushing them down the drain in a Kleenex coffin.
Spiders have been dying all over the place this spring, thanks to the aggression of the citizens of Estevan. We simply hate spiders and want to see them wiped out, despite their actually harmless nature,and the fact that they trap and eat other pesky insects in their webs.
Unfortunately, in the aftermath of the spring flooding, the people of Estevan have been turning to the old superstition that claims that killing a spider will make it rain. Using this logic, floods that have ravaged the southeast this spring are no more than the karma-induced result of the deaths of millions of spiders in the Estevan area. How foolish were we, to brutally slaughter without consideration of the consequences?
However, the massacre hasn't ended. Rather than allowing spiders to live, the citizens of Estevan have continued their killing. It's almost as though the people of Estevan are taking their anger over the flooding out of the spiders that they believe caused it. Spiders seem to be being run out of Estevan at an unprecedented rate. The results, should every spider leave, would be small. Maybe a few fewer mosquitoes, or an extra fly zooming hopelessly into your office window.
How ridiculous, to blame the weather on a few insects. As if insects, regardless of old superstitions, have any influence on the weather. Spiders can't control the rain. They have no power over how much water piles up in local reservoirs. They are only spiders.
And the people in southeastern Saskatchewan are only people, something those in Minot need to remember. I acknowledge that anger can make people do awful things, and I acknowledge that there is no concrete proof that these vandalisms are happening. Assuming they are happening, though, it is likely only a few moronic vandals who are giving Minot and Americans a bad name. However, I would like to point out that taking out your frustration on the unfortunate Saskatchewan residents who visit Minot is unfair, and clearly misdirected. Smashing the window in of a car in the mall parking lot does about as much good as digging a spider into the concrete with your heel. Stupid. Waste of time.
Losing Saskatchewan visitors likely won't have much of an effect on the Minot economy. But that handful of Minot vandals should remember that those who usually visit Minot travel through all the small towns on the way down. These small restaurants or Canadian-frequented gas stations certainly won't be thanking you for your spiteful, self righteous quest to run Saskatchewan residents out of your city.
So please, quit giving Americans a bad name.
