Dog-Shit

by Tara Rubano

05_dogshit

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Who would have thought that shit would inspire social and political activism? I sure didn't, yet urine inspires me to feed the homeless so go figure.

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As I sat at an intersection waiting to take a left turn on my way to work today, I saw a man walking across the street with his dog. About midway across the street, the dog squatted down to take a dump. When his owner noticed this, he yanked on the chain, the dog stopped shitting and finished crossing the street. This pissed me off for a few reasons:

- The derelict owner left the shit there without bothering to pick it up.

- He interrupted the shit-flow, now the dog is going to be constipated.

I hope that his dog later shits on his head for fucking with his colon contractions.

This then led me to think about other things, mainly how there is a general lethargy felt towards anything of substance. I wish I grew up in the 60s when they protested over everything. How exciting it would have been to really be a part of social demonstrations that actually made a difference. It's hard these days to muster up enough energy to even care about washing our hands after we pee let alone a war. I feel pretty inactive and lame for not being involved in anything politically or socially and I know it's my own fault. That inherent selfish laziness that we all fall victim to of not caring about anything other than what's going on directly around us.

My days are usually spent at work surfing the net, emailing back and forth about what to do that night, go to this bar, eat at this restaurant, etc. And though it's nice to have to worry about so little, it's pretty boring at the same time. I think we all want to feel as if we are contributing to this world positively but I hardly think that getting bombed at the local tavern accomplishes much other than making the local business owners money, which I guess can be considered a community service.

I recently posted a bulletin about my neighbor's 9-year-old daughter getting shot and killed by gang cross-fire and also another neighbor getting a gun pulled on him by someone living in his building. I decided to email the papers and DA and when I tried to spread the word during one of those "who's hungover today?" emails I wasn't met with much response other than the typical "why do you give shit now?" retorts that I'm sure I've doled out many times myself. It's hard not only to motivate yourself let alone others and I completely understand the apathy.

Perhaps we're all a little like the dog owner, no on wants to deal with shit.

To find out more about the shooting go to the LA Times website and search for "Charupha Wongwisetsiri". All related articles will pop up. If you feel inspired to make a difference you can email the Times writer here and contact the DA here.

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Tara Rubano is the co-editor of Duct Tape & Rouge, and no, she is not stuffing her bra with watermelons. She's stuffing them with mammaries.