"Planet of the Apes!"

I watch "Animal Planet" on a daily basis; it seems my dogs like it too, as they stop what they are doing to watch every barking dog on the screen. I've seen countless PSA commercials about the protection of animals, and I agree that animal abuse is an important issue. I lived through the first days of the Civil Rights Movement in the 60s, and I've seen big changes in race relations during my life (we still have problems). The Black population needed equal protection under the law, as do all minorities. We now have the Gay and Lesbian Alliance which protects the rights of the homosexual community, another minority group. There are groups for people who are too fat, too thin, too short and too tall. I don't know if there are any groups to protect ugly people yet, but I wouldn't be too surprised to find out there was one. We already have "La Raza" to protect criminal illegal aliens. We want everyone to have a "voice" in our republic. After all, these groups are all voters (with the exception of criminal illegal aliens). These are all minorities and they should be heard from and spoken for. I'm glad I live in a society where we are concerned about the words and thoughts of those that are outside the majority population. It's all about diversity.

Yesterday, I read an article from BBC NEWS: it said that there is a chimpanzee that recognizes synthetic speech! The article goes on to say that perhaps the apes could understand in the same way that humans do! The chimp in question can understand about 130 words; about as much as a congressman, only with better memory retention. I'm wondering how long it will take for this chimp to get a lawyer and start asking for rights as a protected group? After all, generations of chimps, gorillas, orangutans and monkeys have been imprisoned for years against their will in zoos the world over! How were we to know they understood the whole deal from the beginning? I soon expect to see demonstrations and protests for "Ape Rights", and perhaps the vote! I'll bet the White House is carefully monitoring this situation. I'll bet they even have a focus group to get a handle on public sympathy to this issue. I'll bet Barack Obama is trying to find out how many chimps, gorillas, orangutans and monkeys reside in America (a voter is a voter).

My fellow Americans, it's time to rise up in support of our "hairy cousins". They now have a voice, let them speak! We need one more protected group!!

(I'll be on vacation for a week, so this is my last blog until a week from Tuesday. Keep the faith! T.P.)