SOMETHING TELLS ME IT'S ALL HAPPENING AT THE ZOO

Tucson politics – it’s always something.  It seems there’s a ballot initiative that would increase the local sales tax by one tenth of one percent (or about a dollar a month for most folks) to supplement zoo funding for ten years.

By neddie jingo, back in my day we didn’t waste money on zoos.  If someone wants a hippopotamus, let them buy their own.  Can’t afford a hippopotamus?  Stop spending all your money on iPhones and avocados.  Try saving for a change.  And get off my lawn! 

Actually, I’m a solid Yes on the Zoo Tax.  I wrote the above paragraph in response to something in Nextdoor, a multi-neighborhood listserv I subscribe to.  The most common topic on Nextdoor is lost dogs.  The second most common topic is found dogs.

But a couple of days ago, a conservative fellow from a neighborhood northeast of us started a thread complaining about Democratic political flyers.  A day later, he took on the Zoo Tax.  That’s when I wrote the “by neddie jingo” paragraph. 

I didn’t post it to the listserv, although I was tempted.  In the first place, Nextdoor quite sensibly forbids political campaigning, which is essentially what Mr. Conservative was doing.  His whole thread will be deleted soon.  In the second place, email arguments with strangers rarely accomplish anything other than adding more fuel to the fire.  That’s why I generally try to avoid Facebook comment wars.

I have slightly mixed feelings about zoos in general.  In a better world, we’d let animals thrive in the wild, and if we wanted to see exotic species, we’d go to them (respecting their habitat, of course) rather than capturing them and bringing jungle species to the desert.  But we don’t live in that world.  In this world, zoos can actually help save some rare species from extinction.  Sad but true.

But I don’t think Mr. Conservative was worried about the welfare of zoo animals.  It appears to me that the only thing he wants to conserve is his own dollar a month.   

Personally, I vote Yes on most local tax initiatives.  Decades ago, my wife and I had the good sense to pursue a lucrative career in librarianship.  We are now enjoying a comfortable retirement.  It would be churlish of me to be unwilling to give back to my community.