Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 03:07:58 -0400 (EDT)
From: mphorn22
Subject: Re Dog Tethering Controversy
I disagree with Valerie Broadway’s view that the recent controversy over dog tethering should be banned from this Chatlist. Controversy is healthy! And it’s part of Free Speech that the US Constitution assures us.
The reason I consider it healthy is that it gets all view-points out into the open where everyone can see them and respond according to viewpoint. It got me to thinking about the various ins and outs on it too, including views I’d not thought of before. That’s healthy. I would much rather see that “back and forth” going on than for it to all be “under ground”, festering.. There’s more chance of people recognizing a need to change their views and/or ways in how they treat dogs and other animals….or in how tolerant they may be with other people’s views regarding same.
That controversy – including Valerie’s views – struck a memory in my mind of when I was teaching high school in New Mexico. The memory didn’t have to do with dog tethering. It had to do with teen-agers in gangs. In one faculty meeting, our principal said he’d heard a number of comments in both our school and others regarding gangs’ uniforms. Meaning, whether a student should be allowed to wear his/her gangs’ insignias, caps, shirts, etc. Some schools banned such. He said he wasn’t about to ban it in our school, because when a child wore his/her gangs’ insignias, it was much easier to keep track of what was going on with gang behavior. Being able to track behavior in that way, it was much easier to “nip trouble in the bud” and thus stop trouble before it became harmful to the community at large.
I’m glad for the dog tethering controversy. I don’t like to see dogs being hurt and neglected. I also don’t like to see them do things in my yard that would harm me…like unwittingly stepping in their “do-do” and tracking that onto my carpet.
Thank you, all of you who contributed.
– Maryphyllis