Why I Love Women

 

 

Best Experienced With:       Motley Crue;            Same Old Situation

(Please right click on the link below to open the suggested background music in a new browser window.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXG0q0qesRw

Why I love women….

Not the normal reasons.    They tend to smell quite nice.   On the whole, they are far, far, far, far better looking than the male half of the population.   Women have the power to procreate.   They are the only group who can properly do the hair flip thing, Justin Bieber notwithstanding.  My love for women is partly based on those normal reasons and thousands more of the normal reasons.    The primary reason I love women is a follows.

I love women because, when given the opportunity, their execution tends to be flawless.  Given the opportunity, women move mountains.

Attended the annual Friends of Animal County Shelter annual meeting this weekend and, as per usual, was impressed by the reported numbers.   Over two hundred older dogs placed directly from the San Diego shelters into forever homes.    Almost nine hundred dogs and cats placed with short term foster families and then into forever homes in 2010.   More than a thousand animals saved from the gas chamber because of one woman, Peggy Howell.   More on that in a bit.

Last Wednesday, March 8, was International Women’s Day 2011, a worldwide celebration of women’s political, economic, and social achievements.   Interestingly enough, despite the appearance of overabundance of women being elected into Congress in the 2010 election, the number of women in Congress dropped for the first time in thirty years.  The United States is ranked 90^th in terms of the proportion of women in elected positions.    The United States trails Cuba and Afghanistan   In 2010, women held precisely 14.4% of the Executive Officer positions at Fortune 500 companies.    The United States is run by The Man and The Man is an older white man.   Damn The Man.

I married later in life and it was a fun filled three years.  Looking back, there were two primary reasons I chose the person I chose.   First, she knew the lyrics to every song in the Motley Crue album library.   Every song:  not just the popular Motley Crue songs.     Our first real date was the Warrant concert at the Dallas House of Blues.   Not the good Warrent either, the 2002, out of shape, fat Warrant.   There were five midgets at that Warrant concert.   The midgets were not there as a group.  That was odd.  One midget got quite angry with me in the restroom when I asked if he was there with some of the other midgets, too.    Seemed like a logical question given that I have never seen more than one midget at a concert at a time and I go to concerts every week.    Such is my love of music.    The second primary reason I chose to marry her was she knew the lyrics to Metallica’s “One” and could throw the “darkness, imprisonate me” part flawlessly and in tune.   Love music and love women.

Back to this morning’s FOCAS meeting.    As you may have noticed in that photo up there, Madeleine Pickens was the keynote speaker, focusing on her Saving America’s Mustangs Foundation.    She began her portion of the meeting by explaining how she chose to charter planes to rescue eight hundred dogs and cats from the Katrina floods back in 2005.   Saw a doggy swimming in the water on CNN, chartered a plane, headed to Wal Mart for supplies and then saved the lives of eight hundred dogs and cats.   Evacuated them here to San Diego where they were either reunited with their families or adopted into forever homes.  In her words, Madeline Pickens “saw something I could change and then I was willing to do something about it.”

See why I love women?   And there is more.

Ms. Pickens then chose to start Saving America’s Mustangs and is currently through sheer force of will shepherding a bill through Congress that will stop the wholesale slaughter of wild Mustangs on government property.   Her “ask” at the FOCAS meeting was to spread the word and now several thousand of you will see the “ask”.   Please visit the web site below and watch the third video down.   If your spirit is moved, please then click the link in the upper right corner that says “Madeleine’s Pony Express”

http://www.madeleinepickens.com/

Back to Friends of County Animal Shelter and my love of women.    Looked around the room yesterday morning and noticed that 90% of the folks at the meeting were women.    The FOCAS volunteer Board of Directors is composed of mostly women.   FOCAS was founded by a woman, Peggy Howell.     Peggy’s story is below and she has flawlessly executed on changing the status quo for over thirty years here in San Diego.    Not only are the dogs and cats who find forever homes instead of the gas chamber better off, all of  us who have benefitted from having these dogs and cats in our homes are better off because of one woman’s dream.   If you believe that “the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”, then Peggy Howell has also made a significant impact on society in general.

This is Peggy’s story from the Friends of County Animal Shelter web site:

“On that day in 1977, the fate of stray dogs was not a priority with me as I walked my Fox Terrier in the park. Then I saw him — a terrified red dog, obviously lost or abandoned, frantically searching for someone who cared. It struck me how helpless animals are in today’s busy world! Later, at the county pound, I realized this was where the “red dogs” ended up–most never to come out. I learned from a caring employee, Gloria Blevins (who reunited the dog with his owner), that the Department of Animal Services had little time or money for an adoption program, but would welcome help.”

 

“Many of us made preliminary, individual efforts during the next few years; and finally, in 1986, at the suggestion of Mrs. Sue Geller, we decided to join together to form an organization to provide volunteers and donations toward a strong adoption program at the shelters as a viable alternative to euthanasia. We arranged bake sales, fairs, Easter and Christmas events, and soon were joined by others who recognized the need. We helped fund an adoption counselor and an adoption van, paid for answering machines and newspaper ads, and provided help for needy owners to retrieve impounded pets or to take their injured or sick animals to the veterinarian.”

See why I love women?     Flawless execution.   Happy belated International Women’s Day, all you women out there.    Were it up to me, you’d have the reins.

And since I’ve already checked the boxes marked “knows the lyrics to all the Motley Crue songs” and “knows the lyrics to Metallica’s ‘One’” on my marriage sheet, am going to raise the bar for the next possible go round.    Going to see what I can do about cloning Madeleine Pickens because she is already spoken for.          Right after I finish my time machine.

Thanks for doing what you do daily, women.   I love you.

 

Please spay and neuter your animals and encourage everyone you know to spay and neuter your animals.    And beat to death those who choose not to spay and neuter their animals.    If you need some extra smiling on a day to day basis, feel free to sign up as a foster home at the Friends of County Animal Shelters link below.    You cannot have a bad day with puppies or kittens running around your home.    

http://www.focas-sandiego.org/