And he's OK. Really.
We stopped briefly by the Occupy OKC last night - it was too windy for Itzl to remain long and a bit too chilly for me as I don't have a coat or jacket and Oklahoma winds laugh at sweaters.
The chill certainly either reduced the number of people there or they were all huddling inside the tents, so I really have nothing to say about what was going on there. I've pretty much decided that I can probably do more off the site than on site, since I can really only give an hour or two a day at Kerr Park. I will still keep checking on them and making donations of tarps, blankets, water, and money.
Instead, I am writing my state and federal legislators, talking to random strangers, handing out the cards with the websites for more information, and sharing the better articles from DKos as widely as possible.
It's a slow process, but change, especially the deep, underlying structural changes we need, takes a long time. I'd rather build strong foundations than flimsy buildings.
I've heard people say we need to re-write the Constitution, and I think that's not true. The Constitution, as written, is a good document. It's strong and fair. What hasn't been strong and fair are the many interpretations of it. As an author, I can relate. Many times, something I've written has been torn apart for deeper meanings when honestly, I meant exactly what I wrote, no hidden meanings. We might want to perhaps add a glossary to the Constitution, but not change it other than through amendments.
I've seen the "Congressional Reform Act of 2011", which sounds good on the surface, but the only one that makes sense is the fact that many elected employees draw their retirement immediately upon leaving office instead of waiting until they are of full retirement age (of course, for some, this is moot - they are already retirement age). I agree that any employee (and that includes our elected employees) should wait until they are retirement age (as determined by Social Security) before drawing a retirement pension - whether that employee is the President of the US, the governor of a state, or the secretary of a school.
It's good that we are talking about all of this. The silence the past decade or so has been deafening. I may not agree with what others are saying, but they need to say them. Out in the open we can examine them and determine the facts about them share those facts, and come to a reasonable conclusion.
Or we could all just be lumberjacks like Itzl:
He plans to work until he can't work any more. Yesterday was a windy day - steady at around 30 mph with gusts up to 50 mph - windy enough that we noticed there was wind. That meant Itzl was a busy little dog alerting on things being blown down the street, rattling signs, and flapping fabrics. I didn't catch the flapping fabric sound myself, I guess that's another sound I've lost.
It made him inordinately happy that he has a new sound to alert on.
If he were a human, he'd have this album of sounds, annotated with the date he added it to his collection, where we were when he first heard it, and what his alert signal for it is. He'd probably keep score, too, noting how many times he alerted on each sound so he could reminisce over them with his grandchildren (except, you know - he's a service dog and that means he's neutered, so no kids or grandkids for him). He'd probably annoy the aides at a nursing home with his, "Remember when I first heard a light saber? I was wearing a red dragon suit with gold lame wings and we were standing in the hall when zzzwuunnggg! there it was!"
He has so many stories like that. If only he could talk.