Here we go again. Once set of rules for them; another set of rules for us.
You’ve no doubt heard by now about comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and the puppy fiasco. For those who are unaware, here’s the Reader’s Digest version: Ms. DeGeneres and her “partner,” actress Portia De Rossi, adopted a puppy from an LA-based animal rescue organization called Mutts and Moms. Just days after the animal was placed in the DeGeneres home, the couple decided the new acquisition was not a good fit with their cats, and gave the puppy to the family of Ellen’s hairdresser. One problem: “Partner” de Rossi signed a contract with the agency that prohibited the “re-gifting” of the animal. Per the contract, if the adoption does not work out, the animal is to be returned to the rescue organization. Next step: The agency removes the dog from the hairdresser’s home, and chaos ensues. DeGeneres, crying on-air, uses the bully pulpit of her talk show to pressure the agency to give the dog BACK to the hairdresser’s home, and the whole thing spirals out of control.
Now, as a Christian, it would be easy for me to pick on DeGeneres and de Rossi for their lifestyle as “out” lesbians; it would also be easy for me to spend time discussing the sick irony that this ruckus is over the welfare of a dog, when countless numbers of unborn babies are butchered each year in abortion mills (I must have missed the DeGeneres segment wherein she was crying over them), but doing so would shift focus from my chosen point in this column: The grotesque idea that Hollywood personalities should be allowed to live above society’s rules and regulations, while you and I are expected to remain firmly ensconced within all of them. DeGeneres admitted that the contract was signed, which means, by consequence, that she admits to flouting its contents. This is but the latest example of Hollywood “types” expecting to enjoy a different standard of behavior for themselves.
To the credit of the people who run the rescue organization, they have not backed down, reclaimed the puppy, and have since placed it within a new home that completed the organization’s required application process. At one point during the furor, Diane Sawyer of ABC’s Good Morning America stated on-air, “There’s got to be some sort of rational compromise.” Why, Diane? Why should the rescue compromise at all with its own rules, rules by which any member of the “great unwashed” (read: the average citizen) are expected to abide if we want to adopt from this rescue? Those folks are in the business of saving animals; they are not in the business of mollifying selfish actors who demonstrate both a disregard for, as well as an arrogance toward, those of us without star power who happen to displease them.
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James L. Paris
My main website is www.christianmoney.com
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