Sunday Column - Thoughtful readers and determined lablers

Harry Truman famously said: “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.” I found out in the last couple of weeks that if you want to find out how kind and thoughtful a lot of readers can be, write about a dog.

So many people reached out after my column a couple of weeks ago on the death of our family dog, Clover, that I feel like I really need to say a heartfelt thank you in this same space. I received many, many emails and several cards, both here at the office and at home, each and every one carrying welcome, thoughtful sentiments.

One reader asked for a photo of Clover so that she could do a portrait. The board of Critter Crusaders of Cedar Rapids, a group that provides medical care to animals housed at Cedar Rapids Animal Control and Care, made a donation to its effort in Clover's name. As a former shelter dog, she would definitely approve.

Particularly poignant were the messages from readers who also had to say goodbye to their dogs. So I'd like to raise a toast to Tug, Emma, Addison, Gordito the lab and Pepper, a Brittany spaniel whose owner had to “let him go to heaven where pheasants blacken the sky,” on July 2. There's also Finnegan, who was very much like Clover.

“Finn was always there, by my feet as I made supper, waiting for me outside the bathroom door, or waiting by the front door for me to come back home after work. He slept on a blanket by my side of the bed. During the night, I'd reach down and he'd lift his head so I could give him a little scratch, and he'd lick my hand. I sure do miss him,” his owner wrote.

And I was touched by one reader who saw my piece as a tribute not only to a dog but to friendship.

“I am an elderly guy and have gone through that pain more than once and it never was easy. Those moments however were never the defining moments I remember when I think of my dear departed friends, each one a gift and each one a friend in the truest sense of the word. You captured that perfectly in your column and I wanted to say thank you for that,” he wrote.

Finnegan's owner also shared a great quote from Sir Walter Scott: “The misery of keeping a dog is his dying so soon; but to be sure if he lived for fifty years, and then died, what would become of me?”

Thanks again to all of you who took a moment to share your condolences and thoughts.

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But if you want a friend, it's probably a bad idea to write about politics.

“Your LIES are getting worse!!” wrote a reader after my column on President Obama and Mitt Romney's tax proposals. “Hope you can sleep at night knowing you are partaking in destroying YOUR CHILDREN'S FUTURE!”

You haven't seen what those kids do to our house on the weekends. Then you'd know it's only fair.

My July 3 satire lampooning political groups that spend millions while keeping their donors secret drew a letter to the editor from Tom Janik. He disagrees that donors should be disclosed, arguing they would face retribution. I say if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. I guess it's a Truman sort of day.

But it was his opening line that caught my eye.

“It is time for Todd Dorman to come out of the political closet and declare himself a liberal Democrat.” An online reader, Sue Kettleson, then declared that my status as an independent voter is “fictitious.”

I just want to thank these folks, whom I've never met, for clearing up the great mystery of who I really am. I had been under the naive impression that, in America, we each get to decide who we are, what we believe, and whether we join or don't join a political party, or any group. But it turns out it's actually up to folks like Tom and Sue to decide.

What a relief. Slapping on easy labels is so much less time consuming than actually considering someone's perspective. With labels, we know immediately who we must always believe or always ignore, and who are the real Americans, or the undesirable others. It's done wonders for our ability to come together and solve the nation's problems.

So if you find yourself with extra time freed up by not having to think, join me in thanking the labelers.