That’s when I got to know a little bit about Dr. Richard Showers. To be frank, that whole city council was a bunch of clowns. Dr. Showers, Glenn Watson, Bill Kling, Sandra Moon and Dick Hyatt were all up against an upstaging and strident Mayor Loretta Spencer. It didn’t matter what was on the meeting’s agenda, you were sure to get an entertaining show of some kind no matter.
Really, for all the circus posturing, I see the red flags flying over the big tent that say – hay, wait a minute, this is a free election in the greatest democracy the world has ever known, and they want to eliminate the most popular of presidential candidates, because they don’t like what he has to say about the most important and persistent political issues in the public’s mind? It’s absurd! It’s messed up! It’s unAmerican! It’s a threat to democracy, to free elections, and whatever pretense of constitutional government we have left – and it’s potentially a prelude to socialist dictatorship.
So, I decided to go to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus elephant walk last week … I wanted to get some new shots while the elephants are still around! … the Circus has decided … to phase out the elephants in the show by 2018.
It seems to me that a lot of people love elephants, and by extension all other wild and exotic animals, many near extinction, because there is a circus and because there are zoos where we can see them and they become real. The conservation and protection of all those magnificent animals depends on public awareness and concern for them. Animals we never see, are animals we never worry about. I can’t answer all the questions about animal treatment and happiness, but it seems to me that PETA is doing more harm than good. And besides, what’s a circus without elephants? Maybe a prelude to a world without elephants?
