By Scott Tibbs, October 14, 2005
Mayor Mark Kruzan defended his Public Works Director, Julio Alonso, in a letter to the editor yesterday. Why Mayor Kruzan felt the need to point out that two recent letters criticizing Alonzo were from Nashville, I do not know. I hope the mayor does not feel that folks outside Bloomington are not qualified to make comments on the actions of city government.
Kruzan's letter reeks of thin-skinned whining. Perhaps Kruzan has a reason to be thin-skinned, as Alonso is clearly an appointment made of political patronage. Alonso is a former chairman of the Monroe County Democratic Party and Democratic member of the County Council. He is also a former Planned Parenthood employee. Whatever Alonso's qualifications may be, Kruzan can't hide the fact that this looks like a loyal Democrat getting a prime position in city government.
Whining isn't new for Kruzan though. A few years ago, I called into the radio station to comment on the inexcusable behavior of environmentalists at a county council meeting. Kruzan, who was a guest on the show, took the opportunity to whine and cry about a letter I had published two months earlier criticizing his opposition to Pharmacist's Conscience legislation. Clearly, Kruzan was trying to use the ad hominem argument that I was unqualified to comment on physically intimidating behavior by local eco-extremists because of my "uncivil" (in his mind) letter to the editor.
Kruzan's response aside, I think the criticism of the animal shelter has been off base. I got one of my dogs, Tera, from the animal shelter and found the employees there to be kind and professional people who care about the animals. The shelter tries to adopt out the animals to loving homes, but if there is a surplus of animals and not enough people to take them in, what are they supposed to do?
It is a sad reality that some animals have to be killed in order to make room for animals that are more adoptable. This was the case with Scarface, a pit bull that had to be put down after it failed a personality test.
The animal shelter is not the problem. The problem is that our society views animals as disposable. Don't blame the animal shelter for being on the front line dealing with an irresponsible society. Instead, they should be praised for trying to mitigate the harm caused by idiots.
