I am looking at a copy of the Sunday cartoon published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on January 14, 1900. Its title is “Women’s Animal Pet and Baby Craze – What to Expect in the 20th Century.” From a bygone, if happy, era, there is a series of cartoons featuring stylishly dressed women of different ages walking and cuddling different pets. 1901 is a monkey, 1902 is a leopard, 1903 is a hippopotamus with a blue ribbon wrapped around its tail, 1904 is a crocodile on a leash, and 1905 is a cute giraffe. And finally, “1920’s rarest and most curious pet: a real baby.”
Well, I’m not here to criticize J.D. Vance for being unoriginal in his warnings about the evils of “childless cat ladies,” but this problem has been around long enough to be stamped out now. It seems so.
Pivoting groups of people against each other for political gain is nothing new. I have some advice for people who want to name and criticize specific groups. Make sure the number of people who sympathize with your opinion is much greater than the number of people you are attacking.
This is because many people in America own pets, and they seem to view pets as part of the family. Pet owners also back up their love for their pets with hard, cold money. Last year, in 2023, they spent $186 billion on pets, which is more than America spends on child care. This was reported in the September 24, 2024 issue of The Economist magazine.
By the way, please note that Vance is not recommending that people give up their pets.
I don’t know if we’re ever going to talk about the virtues of having kids outside of an election year. Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders said her children keep her humble, implying that women without children have no shame in being modest.
I hasten to point out that anyone who brags about their modesty, even as a child, is not humble.
Some have children, some don’t. Sounds like family planning in communist China. Communist China, which for years restricted families to having only one child, now wants its citizens to “voluntarily” increase their birth rate. Masu. Here in the United States, some are concerned about the “replacement” theory, in which the combination of increased non-white births and illegal immigration will push native-born whites into minority status. Well, nothing is forever.
World history is replete with cases in which groups are attacked politically or physically because they are not members of the majority group, or because they are different. It’s always the same. That’s because they are not “us”. And since they are not “us” we can believe whatever we want about them. Most of what we imagine, whether true or not, is that they do disgusting things by our standards.
There has to be a treasure trove of things we can hate on others and score political points in the process. In fact, there are companies making money researching how we can better and thoroughly hate each other.
My friend, the late Jess Nelson of Thompson Falls, told me a story about taking a train from Forsyth to Fort Lewis, Wash., in 1942 to serve in the Army. Jess was born in Amels Cooley, near Colstrip. His father was a blacksmith who made rifle barrels from Model T Ford axles. When Jess gets on the train, she finds a group of young army recruits tormenting a young black recruit. Because he was black.
“I told them, ‘Here we are,’” Jess said. Well, leave him alone, he’s just a victim of circumstance, and I sat with him all the way to Fort Lewis. ”
We don’t know where or how Jess acquired his sense of justice, but we could certainly use more people like him today, or someday.
