When I say that we should treat people like dogs I don’t mean we should greet people by scratching behind their ears or rub their bellies… although that would get some funny reactions, “Hello officer… who’s a good boy?” What I am saying is if we treat people like dogs we might be better at treating people properly. Why is it we can see homeless people in need of food and we can walk by, but if a dog bats his big eyes at us we can’t help but want to give him something? Why do we buy dogs toys to stimulate them and then leave the elderly in rooms with just a TV and wonder why they’re unhappy? Why is it when a dog is sick beyond relief the “humane” thing to do is to put him down when we will do anything technologically available to keep someone alive even if they’re on life support or barely functioning?
This past week I read one of the most ignorant responses to the war in Syria in the Hamilton Spectator: (anonymous) “They should try to fix this country first. Too many children living in poverty, too many homeless, too many elderly living below poverty raising all our prices… Thank you Canada for forgetting the needy in your own country.” This person is as smart as a dog excessively barking at the door when no one’s there. In regards to kids living in poverty, there wouldn’t be so many children in poverty if the parents were originally more responsible and waited to have kids until they were better financially established with careers and a stable home. Is that a nice way to say use a condom? Before you buy a dog most breeders and shelters make sure the home will be a safe place, and yet anyone can have a baby. As far as government help, I’m not sure how much financial help the government should be giving to help people who make bad choices because they don’t give anything to people who make good choices. It’s like a parent showing favoritism to the son who drops out of school to play videogames; that typically leads to that son being a mooch for life and the other son resenting him for it. Ultimately, why are we reinforcing bad behavior when we don’t do that with dogs? If a dog pees on the rug, we don’t give him a treat to help his self esteem. He gets disciplined and held accountable… there’s something we often forget to do with people.
In regards to the elderly comment, why is the government solely responsible for caring for the elderly? We are told to invest and prepare for our retirement and sometimes preparing for the future means building a relationship with family who can help. Maybe we need to be more like different parts of Europe and Asia where the kids take care of their own parents? If we learned how to love each other in our families better, there’d be fewer elderly in trouble. Parents and children need to strive to have better relationships, so they’ll want to take care of each other. Just because a dog is old we don’t lock them in a room with a TV. We still walk him and spend as much time as we always did, but elderly people often get brushed aside, and sometimes that’s their fault because they were mean when they were younger.
As far as the poor comment, Canada hasn’t “forgotten their own.” There are many wonderful programs and resources for those in poverty. Poverty in Canada is waaaayyyyy different than poverty in other countries where people live in slums and garbage dumps. I’m amazed how many so-called homeless people I’ve seen who have cell phones. More importantly, there will always be poor people because being poor and rich is relative. Even if everyone drove a BMW there would be people who are “poor” because they would have a cheaper model. Economic classes will always exist, especially since businesses will charge more based on what people can afford, which makes them more money. Someone will always end up with more. For the biblical fan, Jesus said there will always be the poor, which means we need to help where we can, but at some point we can’t use it as an excuse not to help someone else who is in need. There are more needs than just financial help. How many dog owners who are struggling will see another dog in need and want to help in any way they can. We need to be doing the same for people in need.
This week may you find ways to start treating people as well as we treat people.
Rev Chad David, www.ChadDavid.ca, learning to love dumb people