Well, when I posted the last time, I did not know that it was a 'to be continued' post,but here it is: Doggone it part 2, which I think is very much more interesting than part 1.
So, the response to the letter written in the Oregonian literally blew me away! There was not a single person who agreed with the letter writer,though I have to concede that she questioned the extremely personal decision that people make regarding how they spend their money (on dogs -no surprise there). That was what she had a beef with.
Which in my opinion is a tad too much into other people's territory...
Anyway,people lit into her,and there were some who actually suggested she move because she was not fit to live in a dog friendly place like Portland.
I found that to be a little too much,and decided that I had to chime in, and assumed that there would be no way people would find my neighbor in the right, in our situation.So I wrote in a letter asking if I could know where the letter writer had to move, and I would move too, given our circumstance!! But boy did the good dog loving people of Portland prove me wrong!
Check it out:
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/05/portlands_humans_have_definite.html
They were profuse in their professment of canine affection- I was called a bad mother, my son was called worse, my letter was dubbed hysterical...... There were enough comments that had to be taken down because,well, I did not get to read most of them in time, they were beyond just rude....and what was lost in the whole thing was the fact that a ten year old child seemed to be superseded by a dog.
But the worst was yet to come. We had a trip to the coast planned the first Friday of June,and I was busy getting things packed and ready and decided to check the mail before we drove off for the
weekend. Among the various coupon booklets, bills, magazines and requests for money from charitable organizations was an envelope with no return address,and my name and address neatly typed on a peice of paper and stuck to the envelope with tape.
I opened it without giving it much thought,but two lines in, my muscles started to tense,my breath quickened and I am sure I had smoke coming out my ears!
Some supersleuth had managed to get my address off the white pages and had written me a ' note' educating me on how wrong I was about dogs ,and how bad a parent I was and that I had instilled this fear of dogs in my poor kid on purpose,and what he needed was not such negative parents,but a small dog. Oh,that was the most benign part of the letter!
He had also enclosed a much more vitriolic letter he had written to the original letter writer I had written in support of and felt that I needed to know what she needed to be schooled in because he felt,that we were' two peas in a pod'!! Words like feeble minded,ignorance,mindless,arrogant,too ignorant, pathetic, were used in the letter, and I felt that in comparison, I got off easy!
Unfortunately,somebody who was pretty sure about the place of canines in the greater scheme of life, was, apparently not brave enough to stand up for his convictions and so he did not sign himself with his real name, but went with some namby pamby, ardent dog lover or some such hogwash.
Which actually got me thinking, back in the good old days when people had to either write a letter,or meet personally,or send messengers across with news,there was always a sender and a reciever. Anonymous stuff was common,but cumbersome. But now, thanks to social media, one can remain anonymous and comment away to glory, because no one can come over and sock you for your insolence,or rudeness or any innacuracies you come up with. So you can be the cowardly person who can personally attack anybody without any filters,empathy or backstory...... Which would be virtually impossible if you had to do to face to face or if your identity is traceable. My letter had my full name on it and that helped this smartypants go online and find my address. He even made it more scary because I go by my maiden name still and he had my married name in brackets,almost like an extra
threat,like I KNOW your married name too!!
And interestingly,the necessity to remain anonymous to me implies that he wants to get the last word in, not start a healthy conversation. His mind is made up,and he will brook no argument. He could have easily continued his tirade online,but chose to address the perpertrators directly because, obviously, he knows more, is most defintiely right and therefore needs to make sure that the ones in the wrong are brought to the path of righteousness!
Funnily I found myself analysing this guy through this one letter, the way he analysed my parenting skills based on my one letter written, ironically, defending my kid's right to play outside unmolested by a mutt- I came up with oldish, maybe sixties, ( I have to concede,he did not have a single swear word in the letter, which helped me come up with his age bracket, because in the twenty first century, even middle schoolers swear like sailors! Not mine, but I've heard it said....), retired,nothing much to do, kids out of the house, just the dog(s) to pamper, time on his hands, a computer, with the link to Oregonlive bookmarked on it.
But try as I might, I could not reconcile the fact that the fear of dogs was an indicator of abnormality.
When I was eight, we bought a cute looking pomeranian puppy which was so sweet and cuddly.....but my sister and I were deathly afraid of it. This tiny, sweet looking thing had to be leashed all day, just because we were scared . My dad used to unleash her an hour a day, and the two of us used to spend that hour sitting on our bed just because the puppy couldn't get there. But there came a day when she became tall enough to jump on the bed- and my sister and I graduated to the window sill.But we eventually got off the sill and got on with our lives and got used to her and got over our fear of dogs. But we don't go around all riled up about someone picking their child over a dog and find out their address and send them anonymous notes -which by any stretch of imagination is not normal. So, in
my book, fear of dogs- normal, unbridled devotion to dogs to the point of choosing a dog over a human? Definitely not normal.
Think about it, I might be completely wrong about this guy, just like he has no clue about me and my
life or even the fact that I was an ' ardent' dog lover until I got married and came away from home
and would any day pick my progeny over a dog, hands down. Maybe he is a twentyfive year old yuppie, who is bored out of his head writing code......but he still would be a meanie, and I would still love to have him tell me to my face that my kid is not as important as his dog is and feel all supercilious about it until I get my chance to shred his theories to tatters.
Until then....bad karma is piling up buddy,its a piling up!!
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