Rover’s Dream Denied

Another instance of the failed promise of a post-racial America under President Barry “The Mutt” Obama:

After an emotional meeting Thursday night where neighbors split along racial lines over whether an off-leash dog site should be built at Martin Luther King Memorial Park in south Minneapolis, the Park Board president said other options should be sought.

…much of the debate centered on whether the dog park would dishonor King, the slain civil rights leader.

It’s just an amenity in a City park, not a political statement. And dogs set the standard for judging each other not by the color of their fur, but by the content of their…um, “character”.

In my experience, those at the meeting who contended that, “a dog park would increase park use, help pets socialize, and help diverse neighbors socialize as well,” are entirely correct.

People sometimes just want to be mad, or have been well-indoctrinated into victimhood:

But many black speakers said an off-leash site would desecrate the park. Several recalled how Bull Connor, the Birmingham, Ala., police official, used police dogs to attack civil rights demonstrators in the 1960s, turning dogs into a symbol of hatred.

That symbol is 50 years in the past. I wonder how many people of any breed still make the symbolic connection between dogs and racism. And of those, how many care to stay conscious of the fact that Connor (and his dogs) was a Democrat?

Charles Mays, retired Midwestern regional youth director for the NAACP, said in an interview that the Minneapolis NAACP, the Minnesota Association of Black Social Workers, Sabathani Community Center and the Sabathani Chapter of the AARP are among groups that have come out against a dog park at King Park.

The Park Board is trying to abide by the spirit of the Civil Rights movement and equalize amenities across our rainbow city. But the children of the movement now refuse to taste the hard-won fruit.

H/T: MJB