Regarding:
>......How I would love to take that persons head and push it into the
>fishing hole and give him a taste of his own medicine.  It is such a sad
>sad world that we live in that the younger people today have no feelings
>for others or even themselves.  ......."
 
I, too was saddened by the abuse described in the post this refers too - I'm
sure it was sobering if not outright depressing for most of us.  We all know
that horrible things happen, and, unfortunately, we can't always stop them.
But blaming 'younger people' ????  Generally I stay out of arguments, but
this really hurts.  For one thing, that post said nothing about age except
that he (or was it his sister) was home from school.  I'll restrain myself
from tirading on how young people can only learn these things from their
environment - namely older people.  But please don't blame this jerk's
actions on youth.  Someone that ugly inside probably carries that sickness
from childhood onto old age.  Personally, I'm in my early twenties and take
good care of my pets, have strong friendships with people of varying ages,
have supported myself since I was 15, babysit 3 kids from 2 low income
families for free a couple times a week on top of a more than full time job,
am active in protecting animal and environmental rights.....
 
Reading this is especially saddening and confusing when posted on a list
that contains, among many other caring young people, a 13 year old young man
with the guts and heart to try and start his own ferret shelter.
 
On a less defensive and much happier note,Patrick Johnston (who followers of
the CA battle may recognize as the man who forced bill AB363 onto hold) was
recently passed over for president of the Senate (I think that's the title)
in favor of John Burton, a much more liberal and reasonable (if somewhat hot
tempered) man.  Burton led the only successful override of one of Reagan's
shutdowns of mental hospitals, let's hope his sympathy extends to little
animals.  For the non Californians who are impatient with our efforts, we're
working on it - some of us prefer to write letters and vote but remain low
key in the media for the protection of our pets.  There's a lot of ignorance
to battle and some pretty high image opponents to work through.
 
[LD]
[Posted in FML issue 2192]