Elly is mostly black with a little scattered white, looks like a graying old lady around her head and in other spots. She comes from an old cotton-mill workers’ neighborhood, an urban collection of shotgun houses slightly east of downtown Atlanta. I joke that she is black-and-white trash from Cabbage Town, what that now-gentrified area has always been called.
Bell is beige, and weighs at least twice as much as Elly. Just the sight of Bell riles Elly. Seeing Elly enrages Bell.
As entertainment guy at our annual neighborhood fall festival Saturday, I was sitting on a chair in the middle of a cul-de-sac in front of the house where Bell lives. I was painting figures on the faces and wrists of children. My friend Ellen and her dog were minding Elly while I worked. Ellen walked the two dogs on their leashes into the cul-de-sac.
Bell, free to roam among the festival goers, lunged into the crowd and quickly dispatched Elly to the blacktop, Elly’s neck firmly in Bell’s jaws. We quickly broke up the fracas and Elly is no worse for wear.
I’ve since learned Bell has a history of charging and attempting to attack other dogs.
Bell’s owner supports Bush. I, well you know who I don’t support. People murmured about why Bell might do such a thing. I mumbled something about Elly’s liberal roots.
Nominated to Home Owners Association board
Before the fall festivities got underway, we held a brief meeting to appoint a new board. Volunteers, myself included, raised hands to serve. After the meeting the talk turned to electing me president. I immediately remarked, At least one liberal is going to be president in America next year.
Therefore, have faith—err, be encouraged—we’ve already begun to turn this thing around.
The New York Times's Bob Herbert today:
“I think a case could be made that ignorance played at least as big a role in the election's outcome as values. A recent survey by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland found that nearly 70 percent of President Bush's supporters believe the U.S. has come up with "clear evidence" that Saddam Hussein was working closely with Al Qaeda. A third of the president's supporters believe weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. And more than a third believe that a substantial majority of world opinion supported the U.S.-led invasion.
“This is scary. How do you make a rational political pitch to people who have put that part of their brain on hold? No wonder Bush won.”
The 2004 presidential election by IQ: http://chrisevans3d.com/files/iq.htm://
Thanks to John Dufresne for the link, which is being circulated widely, published by The Economist. Be sure to read John's blog today, especially the midday edition. "We can do this." We must do this.
