She's been called back into court. The news, predictably, provoked a rash of vitriolic pronouncements in the public comments section of online CNN.
My take: I'm sorry for her weakness, but also for MY OWN, and for YOURS, whatever it may be. I love her and want her to be well.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Dogs
My fantasy of one of the better possible worlds would be a place where pet shops and backyard breeders did not sell dogs or cats, and where shelters were the only place to get one (neutered, microchipped, and vaccinated), at least until the terrible overpopulation problem is solved. Too many of us are insensitive to how precious these innocent helpless lives are, every single one of them!
I believe that behavioral problems are correctable with time and patience. We adopted a pit bull when she was 3.5 years old, a terror who was apparently brutalized in someone's attempt to raise a watchdog. Five years later, we have the sweetest, gentlest, lover of all living things. She knows that she is loved, and exactly like any of us, responds in kind.
I read an article about how to acclimate one's pet to the vet's office. This is not my concern. At the vet's office my coonhound Tess is the very picture of calm, placid serenity. I, on the other hand, am a screaming wreck, yapping, snapping, and pooping all over the floor.
I tell my Tess that I love her (absolute truth!), that she's pretty and sweet, and that she's my puppy (she's 7). She has no idea of what I'm talking about, but the effect is the same as if she did, for both of us.
How about this: In the best of all possible worlds would anyone own any living thing? I'm companion/brother/father/lover to three special needs senior dogs and a 12 year old cat. They are not my pets, because I refuse to objectify them. They are not chattels; I take no rights of ownership. I feed and shelter them, take care of their medical needs, and love on them. I need to. But of course, I'm not your role model.
Make what you will of it.
I believe that behavioral problems are correctable with time and patience. We adopted a pit bull when she was 3.5 years old, a terror who was apparently brutalized in someone's attempt to raise a watchdog. Five years later, we have the sweetest, gentlest, lover of all living things. She knows that she is loved, and exactly like any of us, responds in kind.
I read an article about how to acclimate one's pet to the vet's office. This is not my concern. At the vet's office my coonhound Tess is the very picture of calm, placid serenity. I, on the other hand, am a screaming wreck, yapping, snapping, and pooping all over the floor.
I tell my Tess that I love her (absolute truth!), that she's pretty and sweet, and that she's my puppy (she's 7). She has no idea of what I'm talking about, but the effect is the same as if she did, for both of us.
How about this: In the best of all possible worlds would anyone own any living thing? I'm companion/brother/father/lover to three special needs senior dogs and a 12 year old cat. They are not my pets, because I refuse to objectify them. They are not chattels; I take no rights of ownership. I feed and shelter them, take care of their medical needs, and love on them. I need to. But of course, I'm not your role model.
Make what you will of it.
Collateral Damage
I just read an encouraging update on Gabby Giffords's condition. It caused me to revisit my experience when the story first broke. This from my archive:
Tucson, AZ (CNN) - She was born on September 11, 2001 and died in Saturday's shootings in Arizona. Christina Green's father says the nine years in between were special. "It does say something about our society that our daughter was born on a tragic day and taken out on a tragic day," John Green told CNN's Casey Wian Sunday. Christina attended the event hosted by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords because she had recently been chosen for the student council at Mesa Verde Elementary School, where families left flowers and a note that read, in part, "We are deeply saddened by the loss of this precious child."
She didn't belong here, and if you weep as I do, you don't belong here either. Don't you dare forget her.
Tucson, AZ (CNN) - She was born on September 11, 2001 and died in Saturday's shootings in Arizona. Christina Green's father says the nine years in between were special. "It does say something about our society that our daughter was born on a tragic day and taken out on a tragic day," John Green told CNN's Casey Wian Sunday. Christina attended the event hosted by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords because she had recently been chosen for the student council at Mesa Verde Elementary School, where families left flowers and a note that read, in part, "We are deeply saddened by the loss of this precious child."
She didn't belong here, and if you weep as I do, you don't belong here either. Don't you dare forget her.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Slumdog Millionaire
Finally, to relieve the tedium of idleness at my daughters' home, I found and loaded a DVD of the subject film. I did not discover what all the shouting was about. My boredom was unremitted and, as a matter of fact, overburdened by absolute disgust.
That puzzled me. Could my aesthetics be so unevolved as to not "get it" as Roger Ebert so empathically did? Or am I in error for looking for art in film, intead of some other abstraction (a lesson, an allegory, a demonstration) meant somehow to edify? It only bothered me for an instant, until I remembered that I am (or try to be) my own person. and that particular person watches movies for one reason; an emotional experience that has, in the main, positive elements. I'm not talking about happy endings, but stories that exalt the beauty and passion of another's struggle, or (and) offer me such.
Specifically, this does not include the gratuitous tableau of a little boy falling over his head into a full latrine hole and, for goodness's sake, emerging from it.
That puzzled me. Could my aesthetics be so unevolved as to not "get it" as Roger Ebert so empathically did? Or am I in error for looking for art in film, intead of some other abstraction (a lesson, an allegory, a demonstration) meant somehow to edify? It only bothered me for an instant, until I remembered that I am (or try to be) my own person. and that particular person watches movies for one reason; an emotional experience that has, in the main, positive elements. I'm not talking about happy endings, but stories that exalt the beauty and passion of another's struggle, or (and) offer me such.
Specifically, this does not include the gratuitous tableau of a little boy falling over his head into a full latrine hole and, for goodness's sake, emerging from it.
Monday, August 30, 2010
I'm proud to be a...I don't know. A nose picker, maybe?
Mabel (an alias) is a lay reporter for CNN. She's proud to be a Muslim, having been weaned away from her previous fantasy because her boyfriend was Muslim, and she found him to be "more at peace" (when he zonked out on cocaine he demonstrated the same result, but the Muslim alternative was much cheaper).
But I digress, because what I really want to observe is her pride, and everyone else's. Like:
I'm proud to be gay.
I'm proud to be a Republican.
I'm proud to be (fill in the color).
I'm proud to be a left handed Aries with Aquarius rising, and I"m going to organize a LeftHandedAriesWithAquariusRisng Pride Parade.
Well Richie, what's your problem?
My problem is that I fail completely to understand how you fall in love with your own excellence for something that you are, through no volition of your own, or/and for something that you have become to which no unique virtue attaches (like tolerance, patience, courage, empathy...).
You suppose we'll ever see a "Gay Humility Parade"?
But I digress, because what I really want to observe is her pride, and everyone else's. Like:
I'm proud to be gay.
I'm proud to be a Republican.
I'm proud to be (fill in the color).
I'm proud to be a left handed Aries with Aquarius rising, and I"m going to organize a LeftHandedAriesWithAquariusRisng Pride Parade.
Well Richie, what's your problem?
My problem is that I fail completely to understand how you fall in love with your own excellence for something that you are, through no volition of your own, or/and for something that you have become to which no unique virtue attaches (like tolerance, patience, courage, empathy...).
You suppose we'll ever see a "Gay Humility Parade"?
Yeah, bet me!
Got this from one of my correspondents the other day. I hasten to state, an individual for whom I feel affection, in spite of his not infrequent inclination to (virtually) froth at the mouth and bleed from the eyeballs with hysterical pronouncements, reeking with sanctimony, like what follows here. I have not reproduced the flying American eagle graphic nor the soaring inspirational red/white/blue font, but I have left the capitalization intact. Here we go:
<START RANT>
BET YOU'LL SEND IT!!
88% will send this on...
Should be a 100% by 10/1/10
Nov 2010
"Change is a comin'"
Borders: CLOSED
Language: ENGLISH
Culture: CONSTITUTION, BILL OF RIGHTS,
and the BIBLE
NOVEMBER 2010
"CHANGE" IS A COMIN'"
We the people are coming!
I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG,
OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ,
AND TO THE REPUBLIC FOR WHICH IT STANDS,
ONE NATION UNDER GOD,
INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!
IN GOD WE TRUST
<END RANT>
I have my own theory, that if a referendum were to be held today about the propriety of references in this context to the bible, god, and such, that a substantial number of us, maybe even a majority, would reject such notions. Actually, it's more like a forlorn hope. I invite your consideration.
But right now I'm here to pose a question (a real question, for which I earnestly solicit an answer). Why is it that such pronouncements, loaded with reactionary righteousness (and quite frequently with falsehoods posing as fact), come invariably from the (pretty far to the) right, the Christian religious, and those of us who wear "patriotism" like a badge? That is to say, from those uncomfortable with the humanistic persuasion of the rest of us.
I'm waiting....
<START RANT>
BET YOU'LL SEND IT!!
88% will send this on...
Should be a 100% by 10/1/10
Nov 2010
"Change is a comin'"
Borders: CLOSED
Language: ENGLISH
Culture: CONSTITUTION, BILL OF RIGHTS,
and the BIBLE
NOVEMBER 2010
"CHANGE" IS A COMIN'"
We the people are coming!
I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG,
OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ,
AND TO THE REPUBLIC FOR WHICH IT STANDS,
ONE NATION UNDER GOD,
INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!
IN GOD WE TRUST
<END RANT>
I have my own theory, that if a referendum were to be held today about the propriety of references in this context to the bible, god, and such, that a substantial number of us, maybe even a majority, would reject such notions. Actually, it's more like a forlorn hope. I invite your consideration.
But right now I'm here to pose a question (a real question, for which I earnestly solicit an answer). Why is it that such pronouncements, loaded with reactionary righteousness (and quite frequently with falsehoods posing as fact), come invariably from the (pretty far to the) right, the Christian religious, and those of us who wear "patriotism" like a badge? That is to say, from those uncomfortable with the humanistic persuasion of the rest of us.
I'm waiting....
Friday, August 27, 2010
Please, Sarah, shut up already!
Just found out what it takes to get Sarah Palin to speak at your event. How about A luxury hotel suite, a private Learjet, "framed" audience questions, and $75,000. This information courtesy of a California judge who denied Cal State Stanislaus' attempt at secrecy, and ordered disclosure.
That's what it takes to get her to speak.
Begs another question, doesn't it?
That's what it takes to get her to speak.
Begs another question, doesn't it?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)