Mondays with Mike: The litter box

Good information is easier to get than ever, if you’re willing to put in the effort to separate the wheat from the chaff. But if you’re not, bad information is everywhere.

Case in point: This past Saturday we took a Lyft home after visiting with family in the suburbs. The driver was affable, of Korean lineage, and wanted to talk. Along the way we learned he lived in the Chicago suburb Naperville, and that he thought Chicago was too liberal. Which was fine because by then we’d talked enough to learn that we probably agreed on more things than we disagreed on. So it was all friendly and constructive.

Then he got onto the pronoun thing—you know, where I’m “he/him/his” and the “they” thing. I, myself, have mixed feelings about that, mostly owing to longstanding grammatical concerns imbued by my mother, a teacher. But I’ve come to not care much and am happy to call other people by what they want me to call them. Things can change.

He felt the same, he just didn’t want to have to tell other people what pronouns he preferred.

And then things got weird.

He told a story about a woman passenger he’d picked up recently who said she was from Tennessee. She said she was having problems because her child’s school principal had allowed kids who identified as furries to wear their animal costumes to school.

So, I didn’t know what “furries” are, but apparently it’s a little subculture of people who identify as animals and dress as them and have conventions and stuff.

Well, the woman from Tennessee said things had gone far enough when one furry student who identified as a cat requested a litter box in the washroom.

I can’t believe I’m even writing this but I swear, it’s true. Beth will testify under oath.

So you know, we kind of just rode out the rest of the ride. He was a very nice guy and we mostly enjoyed the ride.

That evening, when we went to our local wine bar we talked with our friendly winetender. I told her about the litter box story. She then proceeded to say she’d heard a different version of that story. That it was in Columbine, the Colorado site of the infamous school slaughter. And that the litter boxes had been requested for classrooms in case shelter-in-place orders were issued and, you know, when you have to go you have to go.

So, what with having the power of the Internet tubes, I started looking around cyberspace. And, gee whiz, guess what? I learned it’s another hoax perpetrated by dumb politicians exploiting the culture wars.

From this story from NBC news:

To a person not steeped in the culture war battles over gender identity that have engulfed school districts nationwide, it’s the kind of claim that would sound bizarre and confusing — and, from high-profile GOP members, authoritative.

The week before, on Sept. 29, Minnesota GOP gubernatorial nominee Scott Jensen asked during a campaign stop, “Why do we have litter boxes in some of the school districts so kids can pee in them, because they identify as a furry?”

Apparently at least 20 Republican candidates have repeated this complaint, even though it hasn’t happened. Anywhere. At least not for the furry thing.

Turns out our winetender, crazily–and sadly–was accurate. From NBC news reporter Ben Collins:

NBC News found one example of a school district keeping cat litter on campus. The Jefferson County School District has had classrooms with cat litter since 2017, in case students are locked in a classroom during a shooting. Jefferson County is where Columbine is located.

Whatever your political leaning, I urge you: Before you spread information that has you agitated, check the accuracy. Because now, more than ever, you can look it up.