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Tuesday, February 27, 2007

A Long Shot: Can Oprah Help Shaw’s Paws?

So in a moment of “it can’t hurt to ask,” I emailed the producers of the Oprah Show yesterday proposing a story about opposition to dogs, alluding to the ongoing chants against dogs/dog-owners from our humble slice of D.C. Here’s generally what I said (I had to cut some of it to meet their character limitation):
I am an owner of an adorable rescued boxer mix puppy (I will gladly provide photos or video of the cute mutt if asked!). My dog has already brought me much joy, and I hope through further training he can become a therapy dog to bring joy to the infirm as well.

I live in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C., an area of the city experiencing a lot of renewal in recent years. There are many other dog owners in the neighborhood who, like me, desperately desire a neighborhood dog park: a place for our dogs to play with one another and to run freely and a place to congregate with other dog owners. Unfortunately, dogs seem to represent the changing identity of the neighborhood, and long-time residents vehemently oppose the idea of a dog park (admittedly there are some irresponsible dog owners in the city who hurt our cause through not picking up after their dogs and through not properly caring for/training their dogs; I pick up the waste of other dogs whenever appropriately armed . . . ). The mere suggestion about carving out part of one of the publicly owned fields or parks in the area is consistently met with vehement opposition (usually without any consideration of the land’s appropriateness for use as such), despite the fact that many of these spaces are underutilized or not used at all. It is sad that people want to forego a neighborhood amenity seemingly solely because it would benefit newcomers to the neighborhood.

I write you because I know that Oprah is a great unifier of people and a lover of dogs. I do not know what specific sort of show/segment idea this necessarily presents but believe that it would be interesting to probe the mentality of dog owners and dog opponents (I do not think this is a rare situation, particularly in the neighborhood renewal context). Much healing and dialogue needs to be done to bring the diverse neighborhood of Shaw together, and salvaging the relationship between dog owners and the dog-less is a baby step in the right direction. I think dogs and responsible dog owners are an asset to a community and think Oprah can help bridge this one gap in our neighborhood.
I can envision a variety of ways in which Mrs. Winfrey could help us. Realistically it's unlikely I will ever hear back from her or her people on this, but can’t hurt to ask, right?


Photo Credit - January 2006 cover of O Magazine, copyright Harpo, image found online
here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good for you! I love the "can't hurt to ask" philosophy...we need it more in Shaw! I'll be hoping you hear from Oprah!

Anonymous said...

I agree with the above poster! Good for you for trying!! After all, the 10th street GuestHouse was featured in Oprah's "O" magazine recently....

DaddyFiveOh said...

I love it! When stuck, appeal to higher authority. And who's higher than Oprah? Lets hope you get a better response than Letterman did.

Anonymous said...

On the 1200 Block of 5th Street on the public housing(?) side of the block, the grassy area is regularly filled with poop. It's not a nice way to dump on the poorer residents who live there (or the hispanic maintenance workers who mow the lawn) and it's one daily example of why we animal lovers face so much opposition about the public pet presence in the City. The tension will surely be lessened if more dog owners pick up for themselves and police each other. I'm not even sure if they allow pets in that complex, so when other residents use the property as a public toilet, that can only fuel the fire.

Dog owners should honestly face the fact that some in their set are as big a menace to our community as the alchoholics and their disgarded glass bottles, the butts of cigarette smokers, and those who litter the street with their chicken bones.

Zero tolerance means zero tolerance for all. Even those with keys are not allowed to bring their dogs to some of the gated parks in London. Do we really need to go there before people take personal responsibility and direct actions to resolve problems in our community?

Anonymous said...

To the last comment:

O please .......

Just ask everybody to stop breathing ........