False Accusations Rant

I have enough problems without having some idiot decide I'm going to be the one to make his or her day, so they can vent like a clothes dryer. Don't these people know we already have a problem with global warming and the last thing this planet needs is their hot air? I don't want to get all steamed up, unless I'm in the shower, but last week a neighbor came to me in a huff and said he wanted to scream at me about my dog. Nothing like a good scream to let out the emotions, so you can reach a state of peace and tranquility. I was wondering what my 15 year old dog that sleeps all day could have possible done, so I asked him to explain. The first thing he said was an accusation that I let my dog run wild around the neighborhood. Then he told me my dog was leaving large deposits of unwanted fertilizer on his yard. He seemed about ready to blow his top. I asked him, 'What color is my dog?' This simple question seemed to stun him, but then he said, 'It's a mangy dark brown.' I looked at him and said, 'My dog is white, would you like to see her?' Now you'd think he'd apologize, but not this moron. He said, 'Well, you keep your dog off my lawn' and started to walk away. I said, 'Wait a minute. You come here and make a false accusation against me, then threaten me. What type of person are you?' He said, You'd better watch your mouth.' I defiantly said, 'No. I asked you a question and I want an answer.' He was seething and clinched his fist and I said in a low voice, 'I'd rather have dog poop on my lawn than garbage like you. Now get of property.' He told me to F off and walked away. I later found out he had also accused other neighbors of the same thing.

Now that little altercation ruffled my feathers, but it was of no consequence. The real shame of it all was that he could not admit he had made a mistake and instead of apologizing used intimidation. To find out he couldn't intimidate me left him three choices. He could apologize, attack me, or hurl an insult. At least he had the sanity not to attack me. I've met many other people in my life that would hurl an unfounded accusation at me and then have too much something to not admit they were wrong or offer some kind of apology. I don't call it pride, because pride is something positive or egoistic. This type of behavior is simply dumb and exposes a shallowness of character. This incident made me think of something that happened at the Amtrak station in Denver, Colorado in 1989. There was a small dog loose in the station. A woman came up to me and with a voice filled with disgust said, 'Why are you letting your dog run loose it the station?' I looked at her and with a smile said, 'I thought it was your dog because it looks just like you.' She was red in the face angry and stomped away. I thought my wife was going to roll on the floor from laughing so hard. Today, I would not have said anything so sarcastic, but at age 38, I did not have much tact.

I'm also finding this, 'I can't admit I've made a mistake' type of shallow logic on Gather. Those that know me know I like to joke. However, one person took offense to me joking with another person and wrote me a very offensive private letter that claimed my comments were subversive like those of a Nazi making fun of our war effort during WW2. I read this and my first reaction was, 'Is this dude drunk or on drugs?' The comment had nothing to do with war or WW2 in any way. It was about dandelions. I never heard of subversives using dandelions to help the Nazi during WW2, but I could be wrong, and if I am, I hope they will put this in our public school textbooks with pictures of dandelions. Maybe Geraldo could do a special report about dandelion subversives in WW2, but then I might see footage of my grandfather pulling out dandelions and feel family shame. He always seemed patriotic to me, but I could be wrong. The person this man defended against my 'Nazi' dandelion comments wrote him telling him she liked my joking with her. It's no secret she does, since she has published articles defending me about these jokes and used these jokes to zing me. I guess this man wants a job with Carl Rove, since it is obvious he has no intentions of apologizing for the shallow mean spirited words. Why do I feel like John McCain in the South Carolina primary of 2000? I'm not out to offend anyone, but I do say my feelings honesty and openly. I don't mind if someone disagrees with me, but to use baiting illogic or making personal attacks against my character is something I feel to be juvenile. It says a lot about the shallowness of character of the person making such an attack. I just gave you one example. There are three other such attack letters in my Gather inbox (I‘ve saved) from a so called good Christian lady, a married couple who suffer from a disability and a woman who probably goes to train stations looking for stray dogs. I don't hate these people.

This leads me to my last paragraph of this rant. This is only directed at those who seem not to understand the meaning of the word justice. I'm talking about those who take sides and decide to hate, or try to be punitive to someone they don't know just because a friend of theirs has a beef with a certain person. I guess the term innocent until proven guilty does not apply to those of such junior high school type thinking. Don't we have enough political clap-trap logic by those twisting the words to cause a false impression in our media? Maybe these people are just being copy cats and feel so much anger towards a certain person that they are willing to stoop into the gutter and twist another person's words to give a false impression. Their goal is to hurt that person and to persuade others to join him or her in their dislike or hatred of that person. I don't know about you, but my moral and Christian values tell me this is shameful, sinful, deplorable, disgusting and abhorrent. Excuse me, especially Lynn A, for not putting these words in alphabetical order. (Lynn A is a good friend and that was a joke). If I have a beef with someone, I keep it private. I don't write or run around like I've dropped a load in my Depends and want every Tom, Dick and Harry to share the foul aroma of my defecation. I don't name names and I don't take sides. The problem you have with another person is your problem. I don't want to go into the outhouse with you, even if you let me squeeze the Charmin. I'm a turkey. I know it. If you're going to carve me up, please do so privately. One last thing has to do with critiques. I welcome them, but if I don't accept or agree with your advice, don't take it personally. I don't expect people to always agree with my critiques. I deeply feel a person should have the freedom of choice in their own decisions what to accept, ponder or reject without having to feel they are being pushed into acceptance. Different strokes for different folks. Please respect this and don't let your ego make you think I or others are showing affront to you. To end, I'll just say freedom of thought or expression is very important. Please do not let others control how you think or how you think about others. Stand on your own two feet and trust yourself. Give thanks to God with the spirit of forgiveness, instead of that of self importance and hatred towards others, especially hatred not of your, but another person’s making.