Felonious Dog

I hear there are about a bazillion heavily armed, heavily armored cops in Minneapolis-St. Paul for the Republican convention. They are there to protect the city and presumably the delegates against the thousands of people who will be there the protest the many crimes of the last eight years committed by our national government under the vile little pretender in the White House. Massive police presence. Protesters. First Amendment rights being squeezed. This is life in Bush's America.

Which leads me into a tale of life in Okie land, to wit, attendance by me, my wife, my daughter, and her daughter at OCCC Arts Fair last evening. Let me make a long story short. Near the end of our stay at the fair, I was thrown out of the place because I had my little dog, a ferocious 12-pound Boston Terrier, on a leash with me. Pets, you see, were not allowed. (Two or three festival security people of the type who were not armed and dangerous had already let us stay where we were.)

And to make sure that I got this message, it required four, count 'em, four armed Bubbas, who, I'm sure had the thrill of their night hassling me and my felonious dog. I will spare you all the details of a previous encounter with a couple of these champions of liberty. Suffice it to say, we had been led to believe by one of these worthies that it was okay to have the felonious dog with us just so long we did not bring her on the food court and as long as we were leaving. We did not go on the food court, and we were leaving just as soon as the others--I wasn't eating--finished eating their meals. We were sitting in a tent beside the food court. It made no difference. As it turned out, we, that is all of us, starting with me and including my 5-year-old granddaughter and the felonious dog, who also wasn't eating, would not be allowed to even finish eating before being summarily escorted from the premises. And I do mean escorted--one of the Bubbas followed us in his golf cart all the way to the car. I should mention that the fair had about 10 minutes to run before closing down for the night when all this went down.

I must also confess, upon reflection, to not being surprised. These are the kinds of goons that populate the airport as TSA checkers. These are the kinds of halfwits on minimum wage who are allowed to carry guns and bully other people to their hearts' content under the guise of providing "security." And I am sorry to say, the same kind of people can also be found on police forces throughout the country. My daughter commented "This is why I don't like police," and I share a sentiment. (not that these morons were police -- hell, they were rent-a-cops, some jokers hired as security guards). This is a perfect example of what this country has become. Concern for manners or simple consideration for people is gone with the wind. In its place we have fear, suspicion, paranoia, xenophobia, and just plain meanness. Worse, we have seen fit to give everybody and anybody the right to carry firearms. And when some dude is walking around with a piece on his hip, especially if he's inclined to be a bully anyway, that is a dangerous guy.

Maybe you don't share my views about what's going on in this country. That's OK. They'll probably come for you after they round up people like me and my daughter, who, to her credit, got bitchy with the Bubbas and was even more upset about this nonsense than I.

I blame Bush.