It's not just sentimental
Kindness isn’t just for fluffy pets
While searching through my archives I came across this essay, first published two years ago, that discusses the Republican Party’s propensity for violent rhetoric. It was a sober reminder that political violence is not a new topic — it’s been with us for some time.
And it’s largely been a Republican problem. Not exclusively, of course — liberals can admit when they’re at fault — but primarily.
It would be absurd to claim that people who promote violence so often would never employ it — but that is, today, the GOP position. They’re now even trying to blame the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” violence on the Southern Poverty Law Center, which had informants among the crowd. (SPLC’s defense used the information to warn the FBI about participants in the rally, we learned last night.)
So, for what it’s worth:
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Kristi Noem, the Republican governor of South Dakota, recently brought people from various backgrounds, political affiliations, and belief systems together over one enduring American value: the love of dogs.
She did so by writing, in her soon-to-be-released political biography, “No Going Back,” about executing her 14-month-old dog because he failed to meet her expectations.
You’ve probably heard the story by now, and I don’t want to dwell on the details. The gist is this:
She says she got Cricket (lovely name), a pretty black-and-white German wirehair pointer, for hunting pheasant, but he was terrible at the assigned task and hunted chickens instead. After more than a year of trying to train him, she became so frustrated that she took Cricket to a gravel pit and put a bullet in his head.
“I hated that dog,” she wrote.
An unruly goat received the same treatment from the governor.
Which, I hate to say, seems the conservative response to every societal problem we face these days, doesn’t it? Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says if she’d been in charge of the Jan. 6 insurrection, she would have been armed — and she would have won. Arizona GOP senatorial candidate Kari Lake told supporters they should “strap on a Glock” to prepare for the 2024 electoral season. The problem of school shootings is supposed to be solved by allowing teachers to carry guns in classrooms. Their leader, former president and convicted criminal Donald Trump, has already advocated shooting everyone from border refugees to shoplifters. (In the back, in the case of shoplifters.) His followers cheer.
When the only tool in your toolbox is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. And when your only tool is a gun … .
When the Guardian first broke the story, Noem ran with it, tweeting, “We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm. … If you want more real, honest, and politically INcorrect stories that’ll have the media gasping, [pre-order my book].”
Because nothing says “politically correct” like not shooting a dog.
But criticism ensued, not only from we weak-kneed liberals, but from Fox News’s outrage merchant Jeanine Pirro, far-right anti-Barbie Tomi Lauren, and the influential conservative tweeter who goes by the name “Catturd.” (I’m not making that up, honest.)
Statements of condemnation also came from more staid figures like Sen. Mitt Romney and our own Sen. Thom Tillis.
Noem tried to dig herself out of the gravel pit: “I have never passed on my responsibilities to anyone else to handle. Even if it’s hard and painful. … As I explained in the book, it wasn’t easy. But often the easy way isn’t the right way.”
But killing Cricket was the easy way. Consider the other possible solutions: She could have sought a better trainer or a more patient home for Cricket. She could have accepted his inefficiency and praised him for his loyalty.
Instead, she chose the option that cost her the least and cost Cricket everything.
Noem also appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News talk show on Wednesday night to blame the liberal media for pushing “fake news.” She encouraged everyone to read her book themselves.
But there’s no ambiguity about Noem killing Cricket. No blaming antifa or arguing that he had it coming. We all know better. This is all her.
And Hannity has his own problems. In 2023, he and Fox host Maria Bartiromo aired hundreds of segments pushing an informant’s unconfirmed claim that President Biden and his son, Hunter, took up to $5 million in bribes. The informant has now been indicted by federal authorities, who say he fabricated the story, and Hunter Biden is threatening to sue the network for defamation.
I’ve heard people claim that President Biden is “just as corrupt” as Trump, and disinformation like this is probably why they think so. At best, Hannity, Bartiromo and their shows’ producers are piss-poor journalists. At worst, this is one more demonstration of right-wing media’s willingness to lie to their viewers in the service of conservative causes.
It’s been suggested that Noem’s recitation of the story in the first place was to promote herself as a vice-presidential candidate. “Game recognizes game,” as the kids say, and Trump would surely appreciate her ruthlessness. (He’d likely appreciate her instinct to use the controversy to peddle her book, too.)
Trump is, after all, the same man who marveled approvingly at North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s murder of his own uncle, as recounted in Bob Woodward’s book “Rage.”
“He’s the head of a country and I mean he is the strong head,” Trump said of Kim in 2018. “He speaks and his people sit up at attention.”
Well … yeah. They want to live.
“I want my people to do the same,” Trump continued.
That should put an end to any apologia that Trump doesn’t really want to be a dictator.
This confusion of cruelty with strength appeals to his hapless followers, some of whom voice their approval of his dictatorial desires, for some reason thinking he wouldn’t turn the guns on them if it seemed expedient. (Indeed, following her bad press, Trump has already distanced himself from Noem.) Some are desperate for a change in their circumstances; some disoriented by the loss of their white privilege; some hoping to ride Trump’s ketchup-encrusted coattails into power ― among them, the evangelicals, Christian nationalists, and Project 2025 proponents who want to turn our democracy into a theocracy in which they rule. We’ve got to be tough, they think.
But then, there’s a dog.
Then there’s an innocent, tail-wagging good boy, loving and faithful.
Then there’s family. They’ll do anything for their kids, their parents.
Then there are the friends who cheer with them at Trump rallies. They bristle, they rebel, at the idea of someone they love being ruthlessly murdered. As they should.
If only they could extrapolate.
If only they could feel the same sympathy for children gunned down in schools; for families desperate to protect their own children from ruthless South American drug lords; for Ukrainians tortured and murdered by Russian soldiers under orders from Putin; for the homeless, mentally and emotionally troubled, economically desperate; for everyone, really, as we struggle to get from this day to the next one.
Online, in response to Noem’s cruelty, an acquaintance of mine stopped me cold when he wrote, “One day, she will need kindness and mercy and grace.”
One day, she will.
Not because she’s especially horrible, though she is. But simply because she’s human. One day she’ll need a helping hand.
One day the grocery bag will break, coffee cans and toilet paper rolling across the parking lot.
One day she’ll misjudge her lane and screech into another car.
One day, if they haven’t already, a parent or child will die and the fabric that knit her life will fray and tear.
One day she’ll be near tears from the pressure of public life, from the anger generated by her heartlessness, from the weight of her own decisions. She’ll desire kindness and mercy and grace then. She probably does right now.
I hope she receives it. I do.
And I hope she learns from that.
I hope we all do. Nobody, not even the toughest, gets through this life without it.
Kindness is more than being nice. It’s a step further, a commitment of sincere concern and practical action. Sometimes it’s inconvenient. It can require strength, sacrifice, patience, the suppression of ego. It can be hard.
Some are not strong enough to offer it.
Kindness needn’t be cloying or humorless. It allows breathing space. It permits tears and frustration.
It’s not practiced for personal gain; not to receive praise; but because it makes the world better. It makes you better.
It’s not an abrogation of truth or accountability; it’s a companion. It’s an acknowledgement that other people matter.
I’ve been in need of kindness, of mercy and grace, more than once. I’ve needed the friend who listened patiently to the woes of my broken heart or endured a fit of unthinking anger or uncontrolled anxiety. I’ve needed the guiding hand that sent me to the doctor or counselor. I’ve been at the raw end of a bad decision, confused and ashamed. I needed kindness and mercy and grace then.
Sometimes it’s been delivered in the form of a soft word or a fierce defense or an embrace or a cup of soup or a few extra dollars. Sometimes in the form of a gentle joke, illuminating my overreaction to a first-world problem and bringing me back down to earth.
I’ll forever be grateful.
I’ve been a little less successful at offering it, but I’m trying.
It’s worth a try, isn’t it? Anger sure hasn’t gotten us anywhere.
Maybe we should try to see the puppy inside everyone we encounter. Maybe that would open our hearts.
Maybe it’s not too late for Kristi Noem. We’ll see.
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Overflow:
Thanks, Jim.
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Today’s model is not Cricket, but Bella. Ain’t she cute?
Got any pictures of your dog? Let’s see ’em.
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The Guardian’s original story:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/29/kristi-noem-misdemeanour-shooting-dog
It didn’t take long for Trump-in-law Kimberly Guilfoyle to take the conspiratorial route, suggesting on cable TV that perhaps Noem’s story about killing Cricket had been planted in her book to sabotage her vice presidential candidacy ― despite the fact that Noem had already acknowledged and defended the story.
If it makes a conservative look bad, it must be a conspiracy.
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HuffPo reports:
“I didn’t eat my dog. I didn’t shoot my dog. I loved my dog, and my dog loved me,” Utah Senator Mitt Romney told HuffPost Tuesday evening. During his 2012 run for president, Romney was criticized for a story where he tied his family’s dog to the roof of his car during a road trip with his family.
North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis said Noem was “obviously not an experienced dog trainer because I’ve seen ill-behaved dogs are usually a reflection of their owner.” Tillis, who loves dogs so much that he hosts a “bipawtisan” dog parade for Halloween every year in Washington, noted that most dog owners would “go find someone that would actually take the dog and train it, rehabilitate it.”
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I’m sorry, but as much as conservatives try to portray liberals as violent criminals from whom they need to defend themselves (with guns), you just don’t hear the calls to violence on the left that you hear on the right. Nobody is urging Democrats to carry their guns to the voting booth in case they have to set things straight or telling them to be prepared (with guns) in case Trump tries to steal the election. Violence is sometimes perpetuated from the left — but rarely, and never as a party policy, not from any leading Democratic official, as it is from Republicans. As Adam Serwer wrote for The Atlantic, the call to violence — and to use government to perpetuate violence — is a uniquely Republican proposition:
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Why you should care about other people:
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From the “every accusation is a confession” department: “It’s fake news,” Trump said during his presidency whenever confronted by factual criticism. But we’ve learned from sworn testimony in Trump’s hush-money/election-interference/porn star-paying trial that he made a deal with America Media Inc. CEO David Pecker to create fake news stories about his political competition before the 2016 election:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/trump-trial-reveals-the-real-fake-news
Every statement Trump makes in the future should be followed by the reporter’s question: “Sir, do you have any evidence to support this or is it just another one of your fake news stories?”
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The gun deaths of four Charlotte police officers last week was shocking, as well it should be. They died in the line of duty while trying to serve an arrest warrant.
One of the two shooters was, reportedly, mentally ill. Republican legislators fight tooth and nail to make sure men like him have access to firearms.
As if police work isn’t dangerous enough.
In Tennessee last week, the Republican congressional super-majority responded to last year’s shooting at The Covenant School, not by strengthening gun restrictions, but by allowing teachers to be armed. Suggested amendments to the bill, like requiring parental consent for teachers to be armed, were all squelched. “Parental consent” is for books, not guns in classrooms. “Parental rights” don’t apply to the Second Amendment.
https://apnews.com/article/tennessee-arming-teachers-guns-2d7d80fa1f54f8f9585a6d2e98fec9fd
Republicans in both states have gerrymandered majorities in their legislatures, so we can expect more gun deaths. It’s their legacy. It won’t change until enough Republicans become disgusted and put people before party, voting for legislators who will take meaningful, life-saving action.
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I’m still confused by the situation emerging on college campuses; still assessing and asking questions. Robert Reich, who usually writes about economic issues, says he’s spoken to students on several campuses and their highest concern is for the innocent Palestinians who are under attack by Israeli military. And this analysis makes sense:
https://www.salon.com/2024/05/03/donald-is-using-campus-to-stoke-right-wing-violence-for-the/
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Sometimes it’s just hard to get to the heart of the matter:
No puppies were harmed in the making of this book:
No further book readings are planned at this moment, but I’m beginning to envision a bigger fox event. A sort of fox celebration. Would that interest you?
Thanks for being here today; I am grateful for each of you who is kind enough to send me a few dollars every month, which keeps me well supplied with Internet access and seltzer water.
If you know anyone who would care to join us, send them this way.
Thanks, Mick. An interesting look-back now that she is on the other side of her One day
Good one, Mick.
And...BELLA!!!