WASPy privilege and establishment whiteness means you get the right-away and the entitled ability to go ahead of everyone else no matter what the situation or the setting. There are good dog owners and competent drivers, but they are few and far between as most snobs behind the wheel will smile and wave at you as they run you over, and almost all dog owners expect you to be fine with their pampered untrained pets charging at you while barking; and if you object, they will accuse you of being the problem while theyʼre the victim. Even if itʼs your house youʼre trying to walk to, the selfish dog owners figure they can insult you for being barked and charged at, while the shovelling drivers get to block your unplowed alley that leads to your inaccessible driveway with their icy wall of snow because only they have the right to reach our treacherous single-file roads. 

Twenty years ago, drivers were flakily slow enough and spaced-out enough to give you enough room to avoid their slow-rolling terrors, and there were only so many untrained dogs and their slave-owners back in the day, so you could dodge such beastliness for the most part. Now, the town has truly gone to the dogs, as every dog and their dog has a dog, while the city-bred spoiled race-car drivers in their luxury chariots have taken over the pedestrian walkways with dangerously unnecessary stunts and “Iʼve got the green-light to go wherever I want at all times everywhere” mentalities that scare away poor walkers at every nutty intersection and around every narrow snow-clogged corner. 

You used to get the feeling walking about Nelsonia that every driver didnʼt want to hit-and-run you, and that each dog owner didnʼt secretly want their mutt to eat you up. Now, you feel lucky when you make it out for a walk without someone trying to commit vehicular manslaughter against you, or some unleashed dog biting a chunk of your flesh. Do insanely sadistic vehicle-owners realize that it will take them a lot more time to go to court over hospitalizing a pedestrian, rather than waiting for them to go about their day in peace for a second without murdering them with a ton of violent metal and glass? Does Cujoʼs human enabler who swears heʼs “friendly” as he barks at your face understand that keeping him on a leash is quicker than paying bylaw tickets or arguing with your pissed-off neighbour who now knows youʼre a rude jerk that prefers snarling at people over being polite and friendly. Because, believe it or not, the dog owner who breaks societyʼs laws to offend their fellow citizen is the bad guy in the situation, not the civilian minding their own business by following the agreed-upon rules of our game. And the pedestrian who objects to almost being physically harmed daily by the horrid lunatics behind the wheel is the good guy in our Wild West tragicomedy, not the other way round as the licensed bullies in their sanctioned ecocide-machines wrongly think. 

If one of us bipeds stood outside a lousy dog ownerʼs house and shouted noises at them while theyʼre trying to sleep, would they be fine with this imposition on their privacy? If the same person shat on their lawn, would they laugh and think it was funny? If a besieged ʻjaywalkerʼ kicks a wheeled menace and puts a dent in its precious hide, would the carefree driver forgive the kicker with a nonchalant wink and a smile? Lamentably, cars, trucks, dogs & their shitty owners have more rights than the dog-less and the vehicle-less in this Canamerican hellscape which has gone full Road Warrior!

#forstmedia #opinion #goldenheron #dogs #pedestrian