Let’s Do Better on This and Future National Dog Days

Why are we still killing millions of dogs and cats every year?

I today, on National Dog Day, seems an appropriate, if somber day to talk about this. I worked for a large California humane society from 1980 to 1988. Although I didn't work with animals directly, I was nevertheless impacted by the constant influx of dogs and cats. I wrote and published the humane society's quarterly magazine, I provided the photos for the magazine, and I photographed cruelty cases to document them for prosecurtion. 

Now, some 35-plus years later, we are still slaughtering dogs and cats at a rate of between 2.7 million and 4 million every year. Sure, some of these animals are unadoptable due to to illness, injury or behavioral issues. But the vast majority of these companion animals is adoptable, if only someone wanted them.

I have adopted 15 dogs over the course of my adult life. Most came from animal shelters or humane societies, although a few were from rescue groups or were adopted directly from their previous families. Several were purebred dogs, but all were rescues. None were purchased from breeders.

Animal shelters require that adopted animals be spayed or neutered. My Jenny was spayed by her rescue group when she was just a few months old -- too young in my opinion. But clearly far too many people don't have their animal companions spayed or neutered. And clearly far too many don't take the steps necessary to prevent their animals from breeding.

Low cost clinics are available in most areas, so the cost of the procedure isn't the real reason for the population boom. Letting a female dog or cat "have just one litter" so the kids "can experience the miracle of birth" is BS. If people want their kids to experience the miracle of birth, they should also experience the miracle of death on a mass scale.

I had one dog who never got neutered. I was advised to wait until he was at least 2 years old to give the growth plates in his bones time to close. He died of meningitis when he was 2 years and 3 months old. Had he lived, he would have been neutered. Likewise, my daughter's golden retriever will be neutered when he turns 2 in October. She already has made the appointment. 

Dogs bring so much to our lives. They give us unconditional love. They serve as eyes for the blind and ears for the hearing impaired. Some can detect epileptic seizures and diabetic shock before anything bad happens. They can track and apprehend criminals. They can detect hidden narcotics and cash and weapons with amazing accuracy and efficiency. Some dogs can detect cancer and Covid. They are our alert system and our guardians. And they’re joyful, happy and often playful.

Dogs give so much more than they receive. And they deserve so much better.

Being Woke

The far right uses the word woke as a slur or an insult.

I don't see it that way. I hope I live up to the ideals of being woke. If being woke means I am kind, that I wish the best for others regardless of where they are from, where they live or whom they love, then I will wear this description with pride. Being woke doesn't mean I am a communist or a fascist. It means simply that I strive to be a good human.

To quote the late Pope Francis, "Who am I to judge?"

 

 

Do You Like to Eat?

So, do you like to eat?

Then think about this: No farmers, no food.

No bees, no food.

No field workers, no food.

No water, no food.

This brief and simple statement is terrifying. I don't know about you, but I enjoy eating. And now with the roundup of farm workers - - you know, the folks who toil in the hot sun harvesting our fruits and vegetables - - either being deported or being too scared to go to work for fear of being deported, who is going to do the hot, dirty, backbreaking work on which our food supply depends? 

One member of the regime has suggested that once the work requirment for recipients of Medicaid kicks in, there will be lots of people to do the dirty agricultural work. Sure, that 65-year-old granny will be a great field worker, right? 

And now, thanks to the current regime in Washington, farmers have lost valuable markets for their crops. Food is rotting in the fields. Grocery prices are skyrocketing.

And now that our longstanding environmental protections are either under attack or have been removed completely, bees and water are ar risk. Without bees to pollinate crops, and without adequate unpollueted water to irrigate plants, we will have no food.

I am not a big eater, especially since I lost my ability to smell or taste food as a result of a respiratory infection (long before covid came on the scene). But I still must eat. I love fresh fruit, the summer fruits in particular. So while I have a stockpile of non-perishable foods, i cannot stockpile fresh fruits and vegetables. 

With the threat of climate change, increasing temperatures and drought, the lack of field workers to harvest our produce and the destruction of environmental protections by the current regime, our food supply is increasingly at risk. We know that higher prices due to tariffs (the Trump tax) on imported foods are already showing up. Expect prices to go even higher. And there may be shortages down the road as well.

So, all you people who enjoy a fresh salad or a good steak (many slaughterhouse workers are brown-skinned immigrants), enjoy it while you can.

So Much Evil

Why is there so much evil in this world? 

Are humans inherently evil, or is there something that makes many become evil? 

And more to the point, why is there so much evil in the United States these days?

If, as some believe, humans are born with both good and evil tendencies, why is it that the evil ones seem much more common?

What prompted me to think about this was a three-part National Geographic television series about the Oklahoma City bombing of April 1995, which took the lives of 168 people, including 19 children. Countless others were injured. Add in the increasing number of acts of evil being perpetrated by the current regime in power in the White House and in the halls of Congress, and it seems that evil is taking over. Evil is winning 

If it isn't evil, what is causing the government, our government, to slash education, to slash programs that research deadly diseases, that provide food to those in need, not just in the US, but around the world? Programs that provide assistance to victims of natural disaster and that provide warnings of impending life-threatening weather events have been canceled. 

Evil is evident in the rejection of vaccines that have been proven to safely prevent deadly diseases such as covid. Even measles, declared not a danger in the US some 20 years ago, is once again sickening both children and adults, and taking at least one life. Evil is removing safeguards that protect our food supply. Evil is removing regulations that protect our air and water from industrial pollution. Evil is celebrating the murder of two people in Minnesota and the wounding of two others simply because they were Democrats. Evil is sending National Guard troops to take over the nations capital. Evil is asking the Supreme Court to ban gay marriage. Evil is snatching people off the streets of America and sending them off to some godforsaken place in another country simply because their skin is brown.

Evil has always existed in the world. Adolf Hitler and his followers are the epitome of evil. So were Josef Stalin and this followers. The history books are filled with stories of evil people, nearly always men. 

Now the United States is home to great evil. Homegrown eveil is the worst. But this time much of that evil is cloaked in Christian nationalism. How these so-called Christians can call themselves followers of Jesus Crist while at the same time condoning murder, while taking rights from women and demanding that women subjugate themselves to men, while removing equal rights from members of the LGBTQ community, while snatching people off the streets simply because of the color of their skin, is incomprehensible.

I find it particularly distressing to watch a country known for its support of the downtrodden turn into a country that celebrates cruelty for the sake of cruelty. Of course, there still are many Americans who retain their goodness and willingness to stand up for those being oppressed. But it is unfathomable that so many Americans voted to elect members of a party that is openly racist and sexist, and that support pedophiles.  

It's also distressing that so many people are totally lacking in the ability to see through the constant lies. I have seen interviews of voters who are finally seeing what that party actually stands for and explain in dismay "that's not what I voted for."  Yes, this is precisely what you voted for. The candidates' own words told you, and their actions showed you, what you would get if you voted for those people. 

Racism and sexism are not new to America. But that our government wholeheartedly embraces these things, and tries to rewrite history, is appalling. Just yesterday the president demanded that the Smithsonian change some of its exhibits because, according to him, they point out the horrors of slaverly. Spoken like true racist indeed.

I can only hope that those or us who are resisting the rush to fascism and the country's embrace of evil will prevail. May America defeat the evil that has taken over our federal executive, legislative and judicial systems before it is too late.

Make Good Trouble

The late member of Congress and civil rights activist John Lewis encouraged people to make good trouble. 

"Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America" is his most famous, and most inspiring, quote.

I believe, as do so many others, that now is the time for us to get in good trouble. Our country is being turned into a fascist nation. Our rights are being stripped away. Our government institutions are being destroyed. The most vulnerable among us are having their health care and their sources of food taken from them, all to provide funding for a big tax cut for the countrys billionaires and large corporations. Immigrants, even those in this country legally and those who are citizens, are being rounded up simply because of the color of their skin. Once they are snatched off the streets, they are shipped off to a detention facility hundreds of miles from where they live, or even to another country with which they have no relationship. Our institutions of higher education are under attack. Women's rights are being rolled back. Our LGBTQ brothers and sisters are being marginalized.

Lewis believed in non-violent protests. As private citizzens we can join peaceful marches and protests. We can call and write to our elected members of Congress. We can stand up for those unfairly targeted by the government's nameless masked goons. We must understand that the attacks will eventually turn on us.

So yes, this is the time to make good trouble.

I Stand With Them

I am not part of the LGBTQ community. But I stand with those who are. 

I am not Hispanic, but I stand with those who are.

I am not Jewish, but I stand with those who are.

I am not Ukrainian, but I stand with those who are. 

I do not live in Gaza, but I stand with those innocents who do.

There is little I can do to help the five groups mentioned above with their current world struggles. I have no power. I have no influence. I don't have a great deal of money. I'm not a politician.

And realistically, my standing with these groups of people won't make any difference to them and to the challenges they face. But just maybe, knowing that one senior citizen cares about them and is appalled by the way they are being treated will help them understand they are not alone.

And maybe knowing that I stand up with the oppressed will show the world that each of us can and should stand up for others. For me, it’s a matter of self-respect. I refuse to side with the tyrants. I refuse to stand with the oppressors.

Where Is Our Common Humanity?

I recently watched a three-part program on National Geographic television about the 1995 terrorist attack on the federal building in Oklahoma City. 

Toward the end of the program, former President Bill Clinton talked about what happens when we lose our common humanity. It has become abundantly clear to me that the United States has in fact lost its common humanity. I think we have been losing our common humanity for a while, but the current regime has made it more obvious that our common humanity has become very, very endangered.

This country is incredibly divided along political lines. There appears to be no effort to, as the saying goes, work across the aisle. I blame one party, and one party in particular for this. Followers of this party think it's okay for them to assassinate or attempt to assassinate representatives of the other party?  I clearly remember when both Democratic and Republican members of the US Congress set aside their differences, came together and worked for the good of the American people.  Where is the common humanity now?

We are now controlled by a regime -- executive, judicial and legislative -- that thinks it's okay to terrorize immigrants in this country simply because they happen to have brown skin. They are tased. They are kidnapped off the streets. They are shipped off to what some have described as concentration camps before being deported to countries with which they have absolutely no affiliation. Where is our common humanity? 

We have one political party that is doing everything in its power, whether legal or illegal, to protect the leader of the regime from serious charges that he was involved in a child sex abuse operation. The ongoing attempts to deflect the American public’s attention from this issue are so far being met with failure. Where is our common humanity for the girls who were induced or tricked into this ring of sex abusers and perverts?

The current regime in power has, apparently with no concern for those impacted,  canceled life-saving programs that have provided food and medicine to the poorest of the poor overseas. This same regime will eliminate health care for some 10 million to 12 million Americans. Where is our common humanity?

The fact that this regime is cutting food support to hungry people, including children, the fact it is costing women's lives with its draconian rulings that prohibit pregnanet women from getting live-saving care simply because they are unmarried or because their fetus died in utero, is unconscionable. Where is our common humanity?

Thousands of people in Gaza are being starved while the world stands by and watches. Tons of food supplies are waiting, undelivered, as people starve. A 4-year-old-girl died this week of malnutrition and starvation. Where is our common humanity?

Russia continues to target apartment buildings and other non-military buildings in Ukraine. Where is our common humanity?

Maybe some day we humans, allegedly a superior species, will wake up and find our common humanity.