More blathering about hurricanes
What is wrong with these people who won’t evacuate when they have the means to do so?
I just don’t get it. When I was told to evacuate in 2003 because of Hurricane Isabel, I packed the children, our clothes, important documents and photographs into our van and headed inland. Because we evacuated, everything I deem important was never in danger from the hurricane.
Once again, we have people with every resource available to evacuate choosing to do the opposite, and then whining when rescue services refuse to risk their lives to save them from a mess of their own making. One headline read, “Wilma’s Force Surprises Keys Residents.” The story was about residents of the Keys who chose not to evacuate, thinking that because the projected path was Florida, that the effects on the islands would be minimal. Where have these knotheads been all summer? Touring Cape Horn? Mars, maybe?
A properly working brain that has paid even a little attention to the weather maps as each new storm developed would have recognized that a hurricane is so much more than just an eye. There are miles and miles of super-thick, rain- and wind-producing clouds swirling with each eye. Considering that Hurricane Wilma, which is rampaging across lower Florida as I write this, is causing heavy rain here in Norfolk, Virginia, those in the Keys who stayed behind because they wanted to are, in my opinion, complete idiots.
‘Nuff said.
Hurricanes, Take 2
Yet Another Pit Bull Mauling
I can’t believe I’m writing about this.
Recently, in a nearby town, an unsupervised two-year-old was mauled by a pit-bull mix dog in the family’s home. The alleged trigger of the dog’s actions was a spot of blood on the child’s clothing.
I’m sorry. I’m sorry for the parents who have to live with the knowledge that they were elsewhere in the house when the dog attacked. I’m sorry those dogs are allowed in homes with children. I’m sorry there are people out there who think that bull dogs of any species make good pets. I’m sorry that almost every time there is a news story about a dog-mauling, it’s a bull dog of some variety.
I will admit, I am not a “dog person,” but several of my siblings are. They adore their dogs. They all own boxers, and one sister has a “collection” of other dogs, including Jack Russells. Not once has anyone thought of bringing home a pit bull. Why? Each one will say, “Because I have kids.”
I just cannot understand why people continue to ignore the long and unpleasant history of the pit bull. They have long been known as biters. A child in our county was mauled by one when I was small, and that’s decades ago. The county then tried to ban “dangerous dogs,” but got slapped down by a civil-rights lawyer.
That was too bad, really, because while individual rights should be preserved, the needs of the many should outweigh the needs of the few or the one, paraphrasing Mr. Spock. If little Jimmy Joebob wants a pit bull, normally that would be fine. But if he has children who can’t just move away to a safer location, or if he lives in a neighborhood with other people in close proximity, then he should not be able to have that dog. HE should move somewhere isolated AFTER he gives up the children.
Perhaps if the people getting mauled were the actual owners of the dogs, the reactions of pit bull owners across America would be different. Perhaps we’d see the end of the breed as a family pet. I just don’t get the appeal of a dangerous animal.