Processing Prejudice, Even in Animal Rescue

 Yesterday, a young man “liked” my Facebook pages for my book, Born Without a Tail, and the rescue group I work with, Valley Save-a-Pet. He did so, asking that I “like” his rescue page in return. I am happy to do that. I am, in fact, happy to hear about any young person who is inspired to work in animal rescue. Apparently this young man is so inspired, he has started his own animal rescue group.  Kudos to him.

I “liked” his page and sent him a note to tell him I loved what he was doing for animals, and asking where he is located. I was thinking that if he is local, I could write an article about his rescue efforts in the Cleveland Pets Examiner, the way I did about Karlie Smick, the amazing third grader from Columbia Station.

Then I sent him a friend request (because we rescuers are crazy networkers on Facebook) and went to his private facebook page to find out more about him. This is what I found: (emphasis  is mine)

“I have 1 really true friend that is literally always there for me…….God. I have a true friend that will never leave me at school…..she always backs me up and will defend me if needed. I just love her (like a freinds :D) to death. I have lots of friends that lately have turned around and backstabbed me. Those 2 true friends are ALWAYS there and will never turn their back on me. I get mad real quick. Don’t mess around with my family or friends. I started an organization called The Four Paws of Hope. It’s to help animals. I started it with my best friend that I was talking about at school. I love animals. I play Percussion in the band at school. I believe in absolute fairness. Even though life isn’t always fair I try to make my part of it fair. I love hanging out with friends. I like doing stupid stuff with my friends. My Mom is a Phlebotomist. My Dad is a police officer. We have a wonderful family. I meant to say this earlier but I am a Christian. I love God. Jesus Christ is my Saviour. Sometimes I stray away from God so I’m not as good as a Christian As I wanna be but I am working on that. I don’t like Pedophiles, Gays, child molestors, or anything of that nature. That’s just nasty so you people that are like that please stay away from me. Well wanna know something? Ask!”

Well, that makes me feel like a million bucks. Gays lumped in with child molestors (sic) and Pedophiles. I got to thinking that in addition to animal issues, I often post gay rights issues on my FB wall.

I can accept that this is the way the young man feels, and he’s clear with the “stay away from me”…so I sent him a follow up note that said “Hey, I just read more about  you on your FB page, and you say you don’t like gays, so maybe you should just ignore my friend request, because I am gay.”

Much to my surprise, he accepted my friend request today. Maybe he is trying to be a better Christian by remembering that the Bible quotes Jesus as saying “Love your neighbor as yourself”, or maybe he’s really serious about believing in absolute fairness. Time will tell. Maybe he’ll learn some stuff he didn’t know in the meantime.

It’s about the animals, right? Can’t we all just get along?

 

Let’s all give the kid the benefit of the doubt and a little encouragement, and “like” his page.