Pride and Prejudice

Daisy had a very good day. She got to hang out with my Dad, ride in the car, go to work with me and meet everyone there, get told what a beautiful, calm doggy she is, ride in the car, go to the vet, get told what a beautiful, sweet, calm doggy she is, ride in the car, go to the pharmacy, ride in the car, go home eat dinner. She thinks she spent the day dreaming.

The vet put her on another OTC antihistamine, now we're trying out Tavist. The vet also suggested fish oil pills that when opened up, smell a lot like diaper rash ointment. She also gave me some spay to put on random itchy places that may pop up. And of course, they shaved her. You know how I can tell it's time to go to the vet again? Dogger's hair has grown back.

After we finished with Doggers issues we had Kitty issues. Kitty ate something that did not agree with Kitty and Kitty lost. I can pick up dog bombs without even thinking about it, the Kitty's dust box doesn't faze me, but cleaning up cat gak makes me nauseous. Maybe it has to do with frequency? Maybe I could teach the Kitty and Doggger to limit their gaking to the litter box? If an animal can be trained to use a litter box or to request to be taken outside, you would think the technology would exists to train them to gak in a box.

And then I went to my ACORN meeting. We had a very good speaker who I was absolutely 100% behind. He works with a group that feeds the homeless, runs AIDS and HIV clinics, gets kids out of gang life, sponsors after school activities and is involved with mentoring school kids and advocates in the courts and schools for kids. I thought Wow! What a guy! Boy howdy are they doing good work. We need more of him, and then he said "Don't call the cops" when I feel threatened by street scum. "Instead call me" . I was speechless.

It seems if I call the cops because I see the random scum doing something that I see as wrong or that makes me feel threatened, that if I call the cops, what I am doing is messing with my "cred" with the scum. They think that if I call the cops, I'm a bad guy. What I should do instead is talk to the scum, or call this roving gang intervention guy and have him discuss with the scum that maybe they need to move a long. He also said that increased police presence in the neighborhood was unsettling to the street scum. I think that would be the point of increased police presence in the neighborhood. To unsettle them. Yay for unsettled street scum! Go settle somewhere else.

I said to him, I'm supposed to go up to these scary, threatening guys and say Hi! My name is Diana and I'm the other white meat. I wish you would take your show elsewhere! Bye!. Bull Shit. The he said "Do you have someone in your community you could call?" and I said 911.

He said to call him. I said If I'm having an acute problem, if something very bad is happening right now and I want it stopped right now, I should call you? and not the police and he said "yes". Oh Hell No.

He wants us to see the scum as someones son, nephew, brother. I'll think of them as a son, brother or nephew the first time they think of me or anyone else as someones daughter, sister or niece. He also preached that many of the young men he speaks with want a way out, they want to go back to school... That many of the gang bangers he speaks with are homeless that there are drug dealers out there dealing every day just to support their Mothers... (direct quote)

He thinks we should just walk up to our neighborhood street scum and reason with them. He thinks we are all six foot four 240 pound former gang members. He can reason with them, the rest of us, have to call the police.

I also had no idea that there were no gangs before integration - but then he went on to blame the birth of gangs to The Black Panthers.

And then he said that the schools zero tolerance policy is breeding more trouble then it is solving, that the schools need to come up with new ways to deal with these kids, they need to be innovative and experimental, try to find ways to reaching these kids before their own draconian policies lose them forever - But that a lot of this needs to start with the parents and getting and keeping them involved. Did you know that the schools in my area have their PTA meetings during business hours? And he wanted us to lobby the schools to move the meetings back to the evening. And I was like Wow! What a guy! Boy howdy are they doing good work. We need more of him and then he started saying that all the community's problems started with integration and busing and this is all the fault of white teachers in the schools. I was speechless. Again.