It's a Dog's Life.

The other morning I was awakened to a woman in the campsite across the way screaming at her dogs, who, for some unknown reason *eye roll* had wandered off. I say screaming... What she was doing was screaming, cussing and THROWING ROCKS at the poor things for "running away". Once she had rallied them up with their tails between their legs and still running from her back to their campsite, she began kicking them.

Ugh. I went out the door and yelled something like, "Hey, you know that kicking your dogs is now a felony in this state!" Her response was, "Why don't you mind your fucking business you stupid hick!!!"

Now I've been called a lot of things... however the pot calling the kettle black was something that was a real mind bender for me... at least in this case. I was pretty much blind with rage at this point. I jumped back with, "hicks are people who kick their dogs!" Yeah, I'm sure that would turn her around to be a loving pet owner... not. "It's none of your business!" She says to me. "You just made it my business by kicking those dogs!"

Pointless argument, as you can see here. They packed up and went away. This bugged me all weekend. Hell, it is STILL bugging me. It made me angry with the locals. It made me angry at the helplessness of the situation. (sure, animal cruelty has been made a felony in this state, BUT... are the local cops going to laugh when I call them? What am I actually supposed to DO in a case like this?) I know what I wanted to do. All groovy lovey peacefulness left me and all I wanted to do was cave this white trash woman's skull in. Yep. I wanted her off my planet. I suddenly have become extremely bigoted and hateful to these "locals". All of my political correctness left the building... I hate ignorant white trash red necks.

There, I said it. No I don't feel better. I had a certain warmness for the locals until that day. Suddenly all my compassion was gone. These people didn't want it better. All the education in the world wouldn't help them. They CHOOSE ignorance. With a large garbage bin 40 feet away, they throw their garbage in the fire pits, bottles, cans, plastic... all of it. They poke at the baby birds in the nests,

they sling-shot the seagulls, they drop cigarette butts all over the ground,

plastic bags to blow around in the wind, park their ATV's in the NO MOTORIZED BOATS reservoir to leave gasoline and oil rainbow slicks in the water. They cuss the neighbors when they are reprimanded for obvious wrongs... Someone help me not hate. Tell me what it takes to live at peace in a world of ignorance and hate. I come from the rural south where there are a LOT of people JUST LIKE THIS. I moved. How can I make a difference in a world that I have little impact on? I can look past people with no teeth (hierarchy of needs) and I can look past someone that didn't breastfeed (lack of support) and I can even look past a cigarette butt on the ground (pick it up or hand them an ashtray) BUT...How does one deal with people like THIS?

There IS a separation of the American Classes... I don't know how to smooth or blur the edges though. After dealing with this woman, I don't know that I want to. I just want to stay VERY FAR AWAY from them. Thus and alas, the cycle continues... :-(