Sooooo, tonight I came home from work a little early so that my wife, Lisa, could have a night out. I turn on the local nightly news, and there is a story being reported on regarding a local K-9 officer that somehow inadvertently left his dog unattended for 12 hours in a patrol vehicle and the dog died. It isn't clear why the officer left the dog unattended, and there is a bit of public outcry about this incident. (See this print story for background.)
Sooooo, the local news interviews a Reverend Paula T. Webb, a "animal rights chaplain," who purportedly feels that dogs are just like people, and should be treated as such. Anticipating critics who would say, well it was just a dog, Reverend Webb stated the following, "if you're going to say it's just a dog, then you would say, well, it's just a black person, it's just a Chinese person."
My mouth dropped. My wife's mouth dropped.
It is disappointing enough that a person in this day and age has the mindset to utter something so utterly stupid as this. What is more disappointing is that this is likely a person that likes black people, has black friends, didn't mean for this statement to be racially insensitive, and all the other niceties that people use when they say something that crosses the line. Rev. Webb didn't appear to me to be a shock-factor type person (a la Don Imus) who would say something just for the reaction. Instead, she appreared to be a well-intentioned person who finds animal rights as a cause and had a likely-rare opportunity to appear on the local news.
I would hope that she recognizes that her comments were wholly inappropriate.
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