Of children and dogs

Anybody in Fort Worth recognize this good-looking fellow?

For me, another day of grief, watching as more news and more sadness comes out of Uvalde. I have friends who have turned off their TV and ignored the newspaper, because they find the news too stressful. I can’t do that—reading and sharing posts keeps my anger up, and I hope, yours too. If we’re going to fight for a decent society where kids are safe in the schoolroom, where what women do with their bodies is between the woman and her doctor, and where everyone has equal opportunity to vote, we have to stay angry. And we have to be informed. We have to win this fight—the alternative is unthinkable.

Greg Abbott used the word “unimagineable” in his press conference, but as Beto and others have pointed out the tragedy in Uvalde was not beyond Abbott’s imagination. This is the sixth school shooting on his watch. He doesn’t have to imagine. He know the drill, at least as he perceives it—do nothing preventive but after the fact stress all that you are doing to investigate. Who needs investigation? A troubled kid got a gun he shouldn’t have had, and now he’s dead and can’t tell us more.

Today we learned that law enforcement stood outside the school for forty or fifty minutes, while parents urged them to go in. Standard procedure since Columbine is to go in immediately. One father, who lost his daughter, tried to get an unarmed citizen group to rush the building. Meantime, children were dying inside. I also heard the police got their own kids out first. There is much to be investigated about the reaction to the shootingand much to be learned, but that’s not what Abbott was talking about. And we must not let it fade away as other mass shootings have. Make this the last one. And as Beto said, now is the time to do that.

Do not tell me Chicago has more violent gun deaths. That’s apples and oranges. I grew up on the South Side of Chicago, and I know about inner city violence. Have you heard of one school shooting in that city? Most of the gun deaths are gang rivalries, with, unfortunately, children too often caught in the crossfire.

Do not tell me that gun control laws don’t work, there will always be bad guys, and they will always get guns. That’s a cop-out for politicians so they can continue to collect NRA funds. Gun control doesn’t work in the U.S. because there are no consistent laws and there is lackluster enforcement. Texas has perhaps the loosest gun laws of any state and one of the highest number of mass shootings (plus other gun deaths). Coincidence? I hardly think so. How can an eighteen-year-old who can’t yet vote or drink legally, walk into a store and purchase two assault rifles and God knows how many rounds of ammunition. Senator Cornyn brought up another interesting opoint today: where did he get the money?

I challenge Greg Abbott to study what was done after mass shootings in Australia, the UK , New Zealand. I also challenge him to go talk personally, one on one, with the parents who lost children at Robb Elementary. Not a press conference where he is buffered by politicians, like the loud mayor of Uvalde who was out of line in his public attack on Beto O’Rourke at the presser.

I am indignant.

As if that were not enough trauma for the day, I have spent much of the day worrying and writing beseeching posts about lost dogs. Today alone there has been notice of at least ten dogs wandering, looking for help and afraid to approach would-be rescuers. One, a gorgeous big fellow, lies on the front porch of an empty house, waiting for his people to come home. Speculation is that college students went home for the summer and left him behind.

People get on various internet sites and ask, “Anybody want this dog?” It makes me blood boil. My constant advice: if someone claims the dog as theirs, demand proof—photographs, an identifying physical characteristic, a letter from their vet. Watch how the dog responds to his supposed owner. In Fort Worth (and I think Texas) strays must be registered with the local animal control facility because that’s the first place people go to look for a lost pet. It is illegal to re-home a dog or cat within 24 hours. And, no, animal control facilities do not automatically euthanize these animals. The Fort Worth facility has a re-home rate of about 95%. There are people out there who acquire “pets” just to abandon or torture them. I’m told there are no organized dog-fight rings in the Fort Worth area, but there are “pick up” fights.

If  you want to re-home your dog, the same cautions apply. Do not just give him or her to someone who says, “How cute!” By taking a few precautions you may be saving your pet’s life. Sometimes circumstances make it impossible for devoted pet owners to keep their animals—death, illness, etc. But I hope people who are considering adopting dog remember that it is a lifetime commitment. I get really angry of people who tire of their dog or want a younger one or just don’t have time. You are that dog’s only family, and he or she trusts you.

Yeah, I harbor a lot of anger at the world tonight. Some shrug and say, “That’s the way it is.” I say, “It doesn’t have to be that way.”