Column
By Mike Buffington
Where are concerned voices on child abuse?
OK, let’s all take a deep breath. The hyperventilation of those concerned about the recent “puppy mill” case in Nicholson is troublesome. In letters, emails and on various blog sites, venom has been spewing forth, aimed at both the owners of the dogs involved and an assortment of government officials.
“These people need to be made into dog food,” said one creative blogger of the puppy mill owners.
“Kill this animal abusing freak,” said another of the kennel owner.
And Monday night, a large crowd attended the Jackson County Board of Commissioners meeting to get a report on the status of the dogs involved. Some of those in the crowd have been very vocal and hostile toward the county government’s handling of the matter.
Take a breath, please.
Animal activists do nothing to elevate their cause when they endorse the use of murder, even if such language is hyperbole.
I realize that this issue is emotional for many people. Animal abuse can be a sad and tragic problem. That’s one reason this newspaper took a strong stand against cockfighting 23 years ago when the practice was more common in this area. And the current puppy mill case appears, on the surface at least, to be very tragic for the animals involved. It is disgusting.
But I wonder why so many who voice outrage about animal abuse seem silent about the abuse of human beings.
Some 50 people reportedly attended the BOC meeting Monday night concerned about the Nicholson puppy mill dogs. Many have taken in and cared for the dogs while the situation is being sorted out. That’s good.
But where have the voices been on an even larger problem in Jackson County — the neglect and physical, emotional and sexual abuse of children in Jackson County by family members? Why don’t we have people showing up at BOC meetings to ask what the county is doing about child abuse and neglect, or spouse abuse?
In 2005, for example, there were 217 verified cases of child neglect and abuse in Jackson County. I don’t recall a single person showing up at county government meetings to ask about the status of those children, or what the county had done about their abuse cases, or volunteering to become foster parents.
I don’t say that to minimize the allegations of animal abuse in the Nicholson puppy mill case. Far from it. But shouldn’t we be just as concerned about abused children as we are abused dogs?
The solutions in the Nicholson puppy mill case aren’t as simple as some seem to think. The county, for example, cannot just confiscate, condemn and sell those dogs without judicial proceedings. The dogs are private property and before they are taken without compensating the owners, the slow moving gears of our courts have to grind their way through the process.
Some also seem to think the county should do more to regulate both the breeding and selling of animals to prevent puppy mills in the area. Maybe, but how that should be done, whom it should apply to and how it would be paid for are all important details that nobody has yet discussed. Cries for “more county regulation” aren’t enough; the devil on such things is in the details.
It’s good that people care enough about animal welfare that they’re willing to step forward and try to make a difference when animals are being abused. But it’s also an emotional issue and sometimes, emotions churn out rhetoric that is overwrought.
Take a breath. And please, every now and then, would someone come forward to also show concern about child abuse with the same degree of vigilance and passion as we’ve seen about dogs being abused?
Mike Buffington is editor of The Jackson Herald. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.
Obama and Hillary bitten by ‘political correctness’
Republicans are laughing all the way to the ballot box over the in-fighting now taking place in the Democratic presidential contest. The jabs between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have become increasingly pointed. The truth is, neither side can say anything remotely controversial without being branded either a bigot or gender insensitive.
Welcome, Hillary and Barack, to the hypersensitive world of “political correctness,” a world the two of you spent the last 30 years helping to build.
Gender and race sensitivities are the minefield of modern political culture. It’s impossible to have a reasonable conversation about either race or gender issues without tripping a wire and being blown to pieces by radical left ideologues.
In the past, it has been conservative voices, mostly Republicans, who got caught in this web of political correctness. Today it is two leading liberal voices that have, in effect, gotten caught in their own trap.
It was bound to happen. The culture of “victimology” cultivated by both radical feminists and radical minority leaders created two hypersensitive groups. Sooner or later, a female and a person of color were bound to meet at the ballot box in a high profile race.
That’s not to say these two candidates are standard bearers of this radicalism; in fact, they have been relatively moderate voices on most gender and race issues.
But neither have they worked very hard to temper the more radical elements of political correctness that spring from their surrounding political culture. In fact, they’ve exploited those ideas to pull their own political wagons forward. (To his credit, Obama did discuss race in a major speech this week.)
So it is somewhat ironic, if not humorous, that both Hillary and Obama are now facing the same kind of radical reactions that the rest of our culture has been dealing with for the last three decades.
Whatever the outcome of this historic Democratic contest, perhaps a silver lining will be less hypersensitivity on the political left about race and gender in this nation.
