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Unwanted Shelter Dog Proclaimed National Hero!

by Rev. Austin Miles on Friday, May 11th, 2012

This is article 3 of 3 in the topic Heroes

One never really knows love until loving and being loved by a dog.
Rev. Austin Miles.

(Los Angeles, CA) A five year old dog named Bear was presented the 30th National Hero Dog Award by the L.A. Society for the prevention of Cruelty to Animals on Monday.

Quite a turnaround for the discarded Shiloh German Shepherd who three years ago was languishing in the Weatherford Animal Shelter in Millsap, Texas. The only German Shepherd in the shelter, he was kept in the back because nobody wanted him.

That is until Debbie Zeisler came in asking specifically for a German Shepherd for her mother. She and the dog immediately bonded and she adopted him for herself.

Debbie had battled almost daily seizures after being thrown from a horse 18 years ago. Even though Bear had never received service dog training, he tried to warn her of upcoming seizures three days after Zeisler brought him home. It was instinctive to Bear. After a couple of falls she began to heed his warnings. Bear will either stay close to her or go to fetch her medicine, whatever she seems to need, Zeisler said. Bear will even remind her to take her medicine every morning.

According to the ASPCA press release, in May of 2011, Bear tried to stop Zeisler from going outside, but she pushed past him. Almost immediately, she was hit with a seizure, fell down the front steps of her home and hit her head, knocking her unconscious.

Bear ran from house to house, barking and scratching frantically on the front doors, trying to find help. Bear was about a block away from home when an animal control officer from Parker County spotted him. (A case of Divine Intervention perhaps?)

Bear led the officer to Debbie who was lying in the hot sun, disoriented and confused. Paramedics were called and Bear rode with Debbie in the ambulance to the hospital.

The National Dog Hero Award was presented in a ceremony at Nokia Plaza in L.A this past Monday. Bear and his family received a gift basket and a year’s supply of pet food donated by Natural Balance Pet Foods, a sponsor of the award and a commemorative plaque from ASPCA L.A.

And that dog that nobody wanted, brought he and his owner, round trip air fare on Southwest Airlines, lodging in Los Angeles at the pet-friendly,Waterfront Beach Resort, A Hilton Hotel, and lots of love that dogs always bring.
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Rev. Austin Miles wrote an 11 part series, God and Animals that leading wildlife journalist, Cathy Taibbi called, “Groundbreaking.” That series can be seen on this website, Archives Oct.&Nov.2011 complete with the 11th episode answering the question: “Do Animals Have Souls.”

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Tags: Animal Control Officer, Animal Shelter, Animals, Austin, Austin Miles, Cathy, ceremony, Cruelty To Animals, Divine Intervention, dog, Front Doors, Front Steps, German Shepherd, Hero, Hero Award, home, Hot Sun, love, Millsap Texas, Monday, morning, National, National Hero, officer, Old Dog, Paramedics, Parker County, past, Prevention Of Cruelty To Animals, round, Seizures, series, Service Dog Training, Shiloh, Southwest, training, Weatherford Texas, Zeisler
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New York Times Opinion: Heroes as salesmen?

by Stephen Levine on Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

This is article 1 of 3 in the topic Heroes

I find myself in an intellectual quandary, because I agree with the basic premise as put forth by the left’s newspaper of record, the New York Times, but recognize that the article is intellectually dishonest. So I am standing up and calling bullshit!

Fox News and the blogosphere is lighting up in outrage when the New York Times had the temerity to note that not all people in uniform are heroes.

“NYT Essay Rips ‘Cult of The Uniform’ – Says Soldiers Aren’t ‘Heroes’”

“On the front page of the editorial section of the Sunday paper, The New York Times prominently featured a lengthy essay bemoaning Americans who put the military on a pedestal — and suggests they may not really be heroes.” <Source: ConservativeByte.com>

The opinion piece, “An Empty Regard,” put forth the proposition that the word “hero” is overused and while there are genuine heroes among the military, police, fire and other uniformed services, not everybody is worthy of the appellation.

Excerpts from “An Empty Regard”The term most characteristically employed, when the cult of the uniform is celebrated, is “heroes.” Perhaps no word in public life of late has been more thoroughly debased by overuse. Soldiers are “heroes”; firefighters are “heroes”; police officers are “heroes” — all of them, not the special few who undoubtedly deserve the term. So unthinking has the platitude become that someone referred to national park rangers on public radio recently as “heroes” — reflexively, in passing — presumably since they wear uniforms, as well.

And I agree. The word “hero” is grossly overused. However, the author is not justified in using this singular fact to bash the military or other policy practices and I find much of his remaining work hypocritical. Another example of the way the left starts with a commonsense premise and uses it to put forth their toxic world view and virulent ideology.

“NO symbol is more sacred in American life right now than the military uniform. The cross is divisive; the flag has been put to partisan struggle. But the uniform commands nearly automatic and universal reverence. In Congress as on television, generals are treated with awed respect, service members spoken of as if they were saints. Liberals are especially careful to make the right noises: obeisance to the uniform having become the shibboleth of patriotism, as anti-Communism used to be. Across the political spectrum, throughout the media, in private and public life, the pieties and ritual declarations are second nature now: ‘warriors,’ ‘heroes,’ ‘mission’; ‘our young men and women in uniform,’ ‘our brave young men and women,’ ‘our finest young people.’ So common has this kind of language become, we scarcely notice it anymore.”

Backhanded praise with a barb …

“There is no question that our troops are courageous and selfless. They expose themselves to inconceivable dangers under conditions of enormous hardship and fight because they want to keep the country safe. We owe them respect and gratitude — even if we think the wars they’re asked to fight are often wrong. But who our service members are and the work their images do in our public psyche, our public discourse, and our public policy are not the same. Pieties are ways to settle arguments before they begin.

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Tags: American, Blogosphere, Fox News, Heroes, kind, language, life, military, need, New, New York, New York Times, NO, notice, Nyt, Pedestal, policy, Public Radio, Quandary, question, Reference Links, Salesmen, service, support, Temerity, Times, uniform, Uniformed Services, York
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John Wayne’s Birthday

by Alan Caruba on Friday, May 27th, 2011

This is article 2 of 3 in the topic Heroes

It’s not a national holiday but, for some, it should be. On May 26, 1907 Marion Robert Morrison came into the world in Winterset, Iowa. When he left on June 11, 1979 he was John Wayne, an American icon.

Men of a certain generation or two, fortunate to grow up going to the many movies he made in a long career owe him a great debt.

By his very presence on the silver screen he taught us all what it meant to be a man. Wayne was masculine without having to prove it. He literally embodied the virtues we want in our heroes. As an actor he shared those attributes with the boys who grew up wishing to be like him and the women who no doubt found him attractive.

Though he played many heroic characters, a Marine in World War Two, a Navy Commander, and later a Green Beret in Vietnam, it was his many roles as a cowboy that made many of us yearn to ride a horse and learn to shoot a six-gun and a rifle.

In his last film, “The Shootist”, he played a man who made his living with a gun, now old and dying of cancer. In the film, John Bernard Brooks, a legend in his own time, was asked how it was he got into so many gun fights. He replied, “I won’t be wronged. I won’t be insulted. I won’t be laid a hand on. I don’t do these things to other people and I require the same from them.” It was as classic a recasting of the Golden Rule as one could ask for and words to live by.

Wayne was one of a handful of Hollywood actors who made no secret of his patriotism and conservative political views. When one considers the endless rewriting of history, past and present, by Hollywood, Wayne was a refreshing alternative.

In a wonderful little book, “The Quotable John Wayne”, author Carol Lea Mueller gathered together many of the things Wayne had to say over the years on a range of topics. Here are a few quotes:

On liberal ideology and its affects on America’s youth, “They work against the natural loyalties and ideals of our kids, filling them with fear and doubt and hate and downgrading patriotism and all our heroes of the past.”

“This new thing of genuflecting to the downtrodden, I don’t go along with that. We ought to go back to praising the kids who get good grades, instead of making excuses for the ones who shoot the neighborhood groceryman.”

“I became a confirmed reader when I was growing up in Glendale and could read before going to school. I’ve loved reading all my life.”

“I’ve had three wives, six children, and six grandchildren, and I still don’t understand women.”

Wayne respected the epoch of the American West being opened for farming and ranching.

Click to continue reading “John Wayne’s Birthday”
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