Seldom do I speed . . . anymore. The cost of tickets are so dear and the number of cops so great, that one might just as well toss a bucket of bucks into a dumpster for ultimately, de po-po dey gonna get yo. And yet. . . .
Last Friday on this island yours truly was in a bit of a rush. Let’s just say I was doing 42 or 43 in a 35 where I normally do 33 or 37. Suddenly, a car approaching gave me the quick headlight flash signifying cop ahead! I have done the very same thing in the past to warn my fellow earthlings about some lurking low-down law dog laying in ambush but I have not been on the receiving end for years now. I never did spot the ticket-writing sneak but what the flash did was slow me down until I reached home. I was grateful for the Samaritan’s selfless act.
And now, just yesterday in our daily fishwrap, I read that the Florida legislature has “overwhelmingly” passed a bill allowing us to legally do what this fellow did for me on Friday. Previously, cops could, and gleefully would, ticket your butt if you tried to alert others about lurking cops and speed traps just ahead. Which raises the question: Is it the job of a cop to make the streets and roads safe or is their main function simply to “harvest” fines and keep the county cash crop acomin’?
Still, do you see what I mean? So very odd that one day after I get “flashed” for the first time in years there is this item in the paper. See? That’s what I mean. Just like the tortoises of two blogs back, just like the tornado in January (“Send in the Frowns,” 1.31.12), just like much other stuff in my life. . . . Does this sort of weird, “twilight zone” parallel existence type of stuff happen to anyone else? Is it merely coincidental? Is it merely me?
____________________________________________
Great With the Children—A woman up in Jacksonville—I will not denigrate the word "mother" by calling her one--was unloading groceries from the car last week when her toddler simply wandered into the street. Not only did the child wander into the street, the seventeen-month-old crossed the street. Not only did the tot cross the street, but the little boy walked onto a neighbor’s yard. Once there he saw something large and furry. He wanted to see the thing close up and to touch it. He did. A few seconds later the child was promptly killed by the Rottweiler. The dog was chained to a pole in the front yard. The child, like a rag doll, was torn to ribbons. But really. . . .
. . . what kind of “mother” lets her tiny toddler just wander out into a street? And really. . . .
. . . what kind of people, what kind of neighborhood, what kind of city, what kind of society, would allow a vicious (there are no other kind, apparently) Rottweiler to be staked out in the front yard? First off, it is just cruel and inhumane to do that to any living thing, including a vicious Rottweiler, and it is a terrible indictment on any so-called civilization that tolerates it. But really. . . .
. . . staking out a four-legged killing machine like that on the front lawn? The owners might just as well have chained an alligator or a man-eating tiger to their front porch. At the very least, the owners should be charged with negligent homicide; at best, out-and-out murder. No doubt the Rott was placed there to keep snooping noses and prying eyes away from the meth lab inside.
As long as it is the poor slobs of the world who are being killed and eaten by these “great with children” beasts who “wouldn’t hurt a fly,” nothing will be done. When the Oprah’s, Lady GaGa's and Mitt Romney’s of the world start losing limbs to them, then and only then may we expect action.
____________________________________________
