Denise left a really good comment on my post this morning about the online poll about the Chronicle Herald:
What I don't get though is the name calling on your part? Old biddy? Stupid non-dog owners? You gleamed all of this from one article in a newspaper which was written and edited by someone other than the couple? I can imagine that getting knocked down when you are elderly is a frightening experience. These people felt a need to talk about it which is fine because some good education could come out of this for everyone involved.
What you didn't mention was how the lady said, "Dogs have as much right in that park as I do" So, even after her experience she is still in favour of dogs being there. Hardly an "old biddy" I think. And her Husband, well he wants signs with bigger print. You'd think by your reaction that he was asking for an outright ban on all dogs in the park!
I am a proud dog owner and advocate myself, but I find it hard to take a person seriously when they resort to name calling. All of the good points that you had to make are lost in the nastiness against people that you only know from a newspaper article. If you had a chance to meet with them personally and educated them about pit bull breeds would you say those things to their face? I am going to guess no. So, why do it here, especially in a place where you hope to help people see all dogs in a more positive light.
I am hoping for a better understanding on all sides. A little compassion, even for the "stupid non-dog owners" would go a really long way, I think.
Namaste,Denise
That has set me to thinking - and you have to think about all your life experiences when you take anything into consideration - and whenever I think about senior ladies complaining about anything (even though I myself am going to be one in the not too distant future) I unfortunately think about a car accident I had a couple years ago where I was involved with one with a senior citizen lady and my car insurance went up by $100 a month for absolutely no reason except for the fact that this woman had no idea how to drive in the city and this was her second accident in her 2 days of visiting Halifax from Cape Breton, and she was the most lame brained person I have ever met, and it left such an imprint on me that I've forever associated elderly women with that one person.
So when I read that article I saw that woman there - and one also has to take into consideration that I've been in a bad mood about off-leash dog parks because of the whole off-leash strategy meetings going on and our seemingly inability to have control about what's going to happen - by that I mean the public's inability to have control - and there you have the protagonist of this blog's viewpoint of that article going ballistic about an old bitty.
So my apologies to the readers of this blog and the subject's of that article in so far as I called them mean names.
And Denise is right that Mrs Zinck did say that dogs deserve to be there as much as she did - but I threw that baby out with the bath water. I figured that Mrs Zinck was going to do that herself when she met with Mr Kelly anyway.
I've been also thinking about something for awhile and this seems as good a time as any to talk about it - the fact that "Me and My Dogs in Nova Scotia" and the dogs portrayed there and the human behind it don't really exist - it is in fact a fantasy world that someone has created - it is a perfect world that the author "wishes" existed, but does not in fact exist. It would be nice if that world did exist - if the happy, well adjusted, well socialized, happy, seemingly perfect dogs actually existed - who seem to go for such exciting adventures almost every day - and their owner who seems to go to every dog function that the city offers and then reports back, and seems to have an opinion on everything - actually existed - but that person doesn't actually exist either. It's all just a fantasy that's been created by someone who is actually much smaller and is prone to fits of anger, smallness, pettiness, jealousy, mania, depression, and any other negative normal quality you can imagine. Unfortunately. So that's why sometimes you'll read this blog and you'll go - what in the h-e-double hockey sticks is she saying and why is she saying this? Has she gone completely off the deep end? Well - she probably has, there's been a crack in the fantasy world and the post will be deleted in a couple days - so enjoy it while it's there! haha! So there you go.
That's also why I ended my post about the Lunacy at the Chronicle Herald with my crack about the "Selma blog" - that lady's dog blog is very negative and she's always calling people bad names like stupid and idiotic, which I try not to do - I do try to stay positive, and I know I've been digging pretty low lately - so I'll try to pick things back up and "praise the positive and ignore the negative" like you do with good dog training - it really is the only way to go.
Oh, I thought I posted a comment yesterday but must have forgot to confirm if I typed the verification word correctly. I was reacting to the idea that the incident rated a half page (from your scan, that's what it looks like) which really helps scream out the "importance" of the incident -- and I'm sure, much larger issues probably only got a paragraph or two and a small text block.
ReplyDeleteThis is the 'old school' method of social engineering. Using media to frame issues either to sell more media, culture more angst, job insurance for the journalist and to sway fence sitters who will react without thinking. Gah!
I agree with the comment. I also felt sorry that the lady was knocked over. I was also very annoyed that it was assumed that if it were a pit bull that she would have automatically been shredded.