Perspectives: Sam’s Perspective – Dog Shoots Woman

I got a call the other day from a friend of my who lives out of state. Seems he just wanted to confirm a story that made the news where he lives, in the eastern part of the country. He said it was about a dog in Enid, Oklahoma that shot a woman. Was it true, he asked, and if so, how did the dog get its paws on the gun? I explained the gun didn’t belong to the dog, but his owner and that the dog stepped on the gun which was in the car with the dog, his male owner and the woman who was shot. He said he knew things here were different. Said he knew lawmakers wanted to make it legal for those without training to carry a gun. But a dog? Said between fits of laughter, he didn’t know things had gone that far. “Did the dog have a permit” he asked. “You’re not listening,” I said. “The gun didn’t belong to the dog,” I repeated “and by the way the woman is doing just fine.” The cat was upset, called the dog stupid and pointed out guns don’t shoot people, dogs do.
Since my friend was already in a good place I decided to give him some more Oklahoma news. Then I told him about the Oklahoma Republican party being in debt and deeply divided. “How can that be,” he asked. Oklahoma is a red state. “I know” I said, but there’s more. The state applied for and received yet another extension to implement the real ID.
Told him their inaction on the issue has already cost the state millions. He was no longer laughing. He wanted to know why the delay and I explained lawmakers saw it as a privacy issue, they didn’t want Uncle Sam or anyone else to have too much information about them or anyone else in the state. Then he asked if we had the internet here and I said we do but the boys and girls over there haven’t figured out how to use it. He found that to be incredible.
Then he asked if they were supporting the public schools yet or doing anything about the one in four children going to bed hungry every night. No, I explained but they are about to launch support for a program to convert gay people to straight people, a program which has already been proven to be a failure and dangerous. There was silence on the other end of the line. Then I explained that the Legislature had passed one measure sure to improve the needy situation in Oklahoma. They voted to give themselves a 35% pay raise. Said it would attract more good people to run for office and which would mean more good things for Oklahoma. Course they didn’t do anything to improve the support of public school teachers or feed hungry children but they will soon be doing more of the same thing they’ve been doing up to now with a 35% increase in salary.
There was no response from my friend on the phone. The line had gone dead.
I’m Sam Jones and that’s my perspective.