Joe Hawk on 9/11: "I did not shed a tear. Not one."

I did. Because usually it's the GOP that tosses out the 9/11 garbage.

 

Guess there's a new garbageman in town.

 

I liked the column because I read Joe every day and this wasn't his usual tripe. I thought he laid himself out there, and I applaud that.

However, he made two serious errors.

One, he could have totally done away with the 9-11 reference and been just as passionate about his love for dogs. I know he was trying to give the reader a sense of how important dogs are to him. We would have gotten that based on the rest of the piece. But by saying Vick's transgressions hit him harder than the greatest tragedy in U.S. history he taints what I think the true meaning of his column was: the dogs, not 9-11.

Two, he states right up front that he's a dog freak and demonstrates (with the help of his 9-11 reference) he's probably irrational about it. That totally subverts the objective of his column because, by the time you get to the end, you're thinking "This dude's clearly a nut."

Not for nothing, but I actually liked his last line. If he takes out the highly distracting 9-11 reference and makes the whole column about his dogs and Vick, then the last line would really resonate.

 

Yeah, I've heard that one before...

 

W.T.F.

Hawk never said 9/11 wasn't a tragedy. And he damn sure doesn't have "hatred for a black athlete."

I can watch documentaries on 9/11 and not weep. But when I watched the dogfighting story on Real Sports and they put down that dog on camera, I teared up. Not because it was a greater tragedy, but because I've got an old dog who I know will die in the next few years. It doesn't mean I'm not sympathetic to 9/11 and it damn sure doesn't make me a racist.

 

That's what I'm getting at.

There's no way to compare putting down a dog and 9-11. The type of grief is totally different. One is intensely personal, while most of watched 9-11 from hundreds of miles away. That's why Hawk's premise was so misguided. If he wanted to say he was more emotional when his dog died than when his mother died, then that would mean something.

 

Love it!

 

Heard a guy on the radio pose this question to listeners: "If you were standing by a lake and both your dog and a stranger began to drown, and you could be assured of saving only one, which would you save?"

He said that a scary number of people choose their dog over a person.

I'm a dog lover and admit it would be an awful spot to be in, but there is only one right answer. Unless the stranger was Michael Vick.

 

Agreed.

But these people saying he values dogs over humans or trying to accuse Hawk of racism are being idiotic.

 

These people = one post from one guy.

 

There were a couple of references to Hawk valuing dogs more than humans. But there's no need for us to quibble over it.