TEACHING EMPATHY
August 29, 7:23 a.m.There is a person whom I have never met that I would like to teach what empathy means. I would do this (if I could find them) by holding them by their ankles, halfway across the Kennedy bridge and dropping them head-first from a height of approximately 80 feet into the Ohio river.
Though I have never met this person I know they are a cowardly, lowlife, degenerate that desperately needs the teaching lesson I just described. And I, for one, would just love to be the person to teach them this lesson. There are people who only think they "know" me and might believe that I am just being facetious when I write something like what I would like to do to certain people. I am though being quite literal, I would do exactly what I described above to the individual I am writing about.
Before dropping him though I would preach a quick message on salvation and give him a chance to be saved, just in case he didn't survive the fall: after that though, I would certainly drop him. A dictionary definition of empathy is, "the capability to share and understand another's emotions and feelings. It is often characterized as the ability to 'put oneself into another's shoes,' Empathy does not necessarily imply compassion, sympathy, or empathetic concern."
Today I am writing to a girl who lives locally that recently made national news as she rescued a red-nose pit that some human pond-scum threw from the middle of the Kennedy bridge into the Ohio river. This dog survived the fall and in the picture I saw she seemed to be doing very well. The young girl has given her new pet a name... "Miracle."
I am writing to her because we might have first known this dog as... "Grace."
Gracie, our red-nose pit, went missing on Christmas day, a little over eight months ago. If this turns out to be her, we are not going to try and claim her back, it would just be enough to know that she is doing well and with a person who already loves her. I know this because the story said that she had to either move from her apartment or give up her new friend... she is moving... good for her.
The picture, in the news article, and the description seems like it could be Gracie, I will know soon enough. Grace had two identifying marks that would be exclusive to her only. I am putting that in my letter to this young girl. Along with that will be my promise that if it is her, I will not ask for her return as long as the girl does indeed want her. To me, asking for her return would be unfair both to Grace and this young girl.
I am aware there might be times an animal would have to be put-down. Certainly there are times a sick or injured animal would be better off dead, however, there are no instances when an animal should be killed by being cruel in the process. Not even if the animal would have attacked someone and needs to be killed because of that. There are still humane ways to accomplish its death.
In my lifetime I have had many animals as pets: squirrels, opossum, ground-hog, skunk, several raccoons, etc. The last raccoon I had, was the last raccoon I will ever have. I rescued (from the woods) "Rambo" as a young kit: he had been orphaned by some "coon-hunters" who had shot his mother.
We had Rambo for several years. When he was about eight years old he started getting fluid on his lungs: his heart was failing. The vet drained his lungs and sent him home. She estimated he might have two more years to live. At times we would have him inside where he played with our cat, and ferret: other than that he lived on our back deck in a large cage I had built for him. I was working on a very large enclosed cage that would reach high into our Oak tree just off of the deck... because he was sick I redoubled my effort to get it done. In the meantime I brought him into the basement and was going to let him live there until I finished his new tree-house out back. At the time the basement was completely empty.
He seemed to really like it down there and did well for several days. My wife called me at work and said he had apparently hurt himself while trying to climb a two foot concrete wall at the end of the basement. He had fallen, and when I got home I could tell that his back was broken.
His front paws were useful but he could only drag his hind parts. Numb from the waist down he knew that something was wrong and soon after I got home he began to behave as animals will do when one of their legs are caught in a trap, he began to chew off his back legs.
I kept pulling his mouth away but he kept fighting me to return to waht he was doing. He had always been very gentle, but twice he bit my hand as I kept putting it between his hind feet and his mouth. I wasn't mad at him because I knew he was in pain and confused. Soon, his mouth, legs, and my hands were covered in blood. I Knew that I would have to have him put-down.
Because it was after hours I could not find any vet in their office. I finally reached a 24 hour vet in Louisvile who said he would do it: however, when he found out that I lived in Indiana and would have to transport him across a state line to bring him in he refused. He said he was sorry but he could lose his license if he handled a "wild" animal that had been brought in from another state. Just another silly law put in place by even sillier men. In any case I got my gun and carried Rambo to the car.
I found an area in the woods near Charlestown that was secluded. As I carried Rambo I kept talking to him and I told him what a fine pet he had been and how much I loved him. I sat down beside him and I petted his head and told him that I was sorry that I didn't get his new tree-house done in time for him to play in it. I gently turned his head away from me as I scratched his neck, then I shot him five times at close range. I wanted to be sure that I hit something vital and that he would die quickly and not feel any pain.
I told you that so you might know that there is a right way to kill something... if something needs to be killed. That is the reason why, if I could find the cowardly, lowlife, degenerate, who threw a helpless dog off of the Kennedy bridge I would teach them a very valuable lesson in empathy. If he survived the lesson, and that would be up to God, my best guess is that he might be a better person because of it.
You can always email me at clarkmatthews1@aol.com
posted by Robin Johnson @ 7:17 AM
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