Published At Last!

Well, it's just a little letter to the editor at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. But it does reach several hundred thousand households, so it's better than being published in the Storm Lake Pilot Tribune (which also happened back in 1986). Here's the letter...

OUR HEALTH CARE CRISIS
Dogs get better care
On Page B3 of the Feb. 9 Star Tribune, there is a story about Mr. Stubbs, a dog who lost two legs because of neglect. Mr. Stubbs is one lucky Shih Tzu because he was found, nursed back to full health and provided with prosthetic limbs at a cost of more than $4,000.

Meanwhile, this week in Minnesota, two children under the age of 10 died because they didn't get a flu shot. Even worse, 20,000 people in Minnesota are homeless every day -- half of them are children who don't receive proper nutrition or go to school because their caregiver can't provide these basic needs.

Can we please prioritize and start taking care of our kids by providing proper clothing, food, an education and a bed under a roof before thousands of dollars literally go to the dogs?

If there is one thing that really gets me it's how people, especially our leadership, in the U.S. tend to take better care of their animals and the rest of the world before we take care of the problems in our own neighborhoods. Look on any street corner. Look really hard. What do you see? A household with a refrigerator that has no decent food in it. A home that can't pay it's heat bill. Do those kids on the corner waiting for the school bus each morning even have mittens and socks to wear? When you drive downtown in the city, take a look under the bridges and in the alleys. You might be surprised at what you find. So my point is simple: Let's take care of US. Let's feed our own starving children for a change.

Now it's time to go to work on that novel that's been brewing in my head for years and years!

-end-