Agents of Division: The Media & Trayvon

If it bleeds it leads. Murder sells, sex sells, hate sells.  We all know that nobody tunes in to watch rainbows and puppy dogs. People inherently like controversy and drama. That is the reason there are thirteen million CSI shows and reality shows. People like to watch chaos unfold and for the victim to be vindicated at the end of the story.

Unfortunately, there is no bow to tie on the end of the Trayvon Martin case. There is no outcome that will ever satisfy the family members who lost their precious child, and there is no vindication for George Zimmerman who has been convicted by the media before a trial has even started. There is now no way to take back the claims of racism that Zimmerman has been hit with when they may or may not be true. The “media outrage” that has been plastered all over the television, newspapers, magazines, and internet has caused a divide in this country that cannot be undone and cannot be easily repaired. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson,  NBC, Fox, and other agents of division have latched on to this story spewing their own distorted versions of a incident to which NOBODY (except for maybe Zimmerman) has all of the facts.

The talking heads and politicians in this country are selling us a lie. They are dragging race into a situation and exploiting it to sell advertisements. The truth is the “outrage” from these people is mostly phony. They don’t care about the details, they don’t care about facts, they don’t care that the effect of their reporting is discord in a country that is already divided on so many issues. The byproduct of their irresponsible ratings race is hatred and violence. Just recently a 78 year old man was beaten by six young men as they shouted, “This is for Trayvon. Kill that White.” I don’t include that to upset anyone. Those young men are troubled and it takes a certain type of person to act in that manner, but the pundits who have manufactured this drama MUST take SOME responsibility for incidents such as these.

The real truth lying under all the back and forth of this story is this…

The people of this country are not racist. This tragedy may not be a one-time occurrence, but it is certainly NOT the epidemic it is being made out to be. The majority of Americans are good people. We are not racists. We are not haters. The bulk of the people in this great country of ours LOVE their community and LOVE their neighbors. Americans support one another, feed one another, clothe one another, and pray for one another. We won’t fall into the trap of division. We won’t be forced by politicians or political pundits to choose a side yet again. We won’t be part of the problem. We will continue to love our neighbors regardless of color or creed just as we were raised. We will continue to lift each other up, support one another, and love everyone. Violence, hate, and fear are all real things. Unfortunately they will never go away. They are all apart of this world, but we do not have to be. We have the opportunity to make hate and division the exception and not the rule. And we will…

Oh Crap...

Today my roommate (Brent) and I decided to take our other roommate's (Phil) dog to the beach because it was such a beautiful day. The dog's name is "Fry."

Everything was going well. Having already completed my run; I was tending to Fry while Brent was off jogging. We went for a walk along the lagoon and chased some seagulls. After being unsuccessful in our seagull hunting (we caught zero) we headed back towards the beach. On the way we waved hello to a friend who was out walking her dogs. We didn't stop to chat we just went on our way making tracks in the sand.

The leash tightened as we were walking and I quickly turn around to tell Fry to come on. When I turned around I was horrified. Fry was squatting over dropping a big dog load right in the middle of a public beach like it was his own sandbox. "Fry no! No Fry!" It didn't work. I immediately turn to see if anyone is around, especially somebody that might know me. The beach is basically empty around us except that the one person who is in line of sight happens to be someone I know - the person I had just waved to. I am 98% sure she didn't see what Fry had done, but I can't be totally confident in that assessment.

I have a rule that I've lived by for several years. I do not pickup after dogs under any circumstance. It is ridiculous the way people treat their dogs here in Los Angeles. They have their own diamond collars, fancy dog houses, they get taken to high-end dog palaces for massages and grooming. If aliens were to look down on us with our dogs they would see quadrupeds with ropes leading around humans following them around picking up their poop. Aliens would think dogs are kings and we their servants. Not on my watch!

I carry no poop bags with me when I walk dogs because I have no intent on picking up excrement from anything.

I'm pretty sure I escaped without anyone seeing me. However, even if I did not. Even if 100 people saw me I stand firm in my beliefs. I will not pick up poop from a dog. I walked away like nothing happened. Later Brent suggested I cover the poop with sand. I temporarily considered that, but I did not want to spend another second at the scene of the crime.

To all people that use and enjoy Playa del Rey beach with their friends and family: I sincerely apologize. If there were some way that I could correct this situation [without picking up fresh feces] I would gladly do it. But unfortunately, there is no way to to make this right. I stand by my principles, but I do offer apologies to everyone. I feel bad for the person or people that will inevitably come across it, but I have not and will not pick up after a dog.

If you are looking for someone to blame....here is the real culprit! Do with him what you must - he is not my dog!

I'm A Blog

I have decided to be a blog. I don't know exactly what I will write about. It will be pretty random in topic and sporadic in frequency. Sometimes it will be funny. Other times it might be funny. It also might be serious. We really just don't know. I will try and include pictures as often as I can.

Check in occasionally and see if there have been any updates.

Over and Out.