OutSFL and Food Not Bombs Fort Lauderdale recently got into an online spat. In an editorial last week, I blasted them for calling us “disgusting” and all police “pigs.”

I was very disturbed by the opinion piece by Wayne Besen about a “dog park shooting,” which, he inferred, was the consequence of “political polarisation.” Are you kidding me?

It can take a lifetime to feel that we’re finally in our own skin; that we’ve comfortably grown into the person we imagined ourselves being. Some people feel fully at ease with themselves early in life, but I think that’s uncommon. One important contributing factor is whether we care about what others think of us, both while we’re living and after we’ve passed on.

In early February, Walter Lay was shot to death in a Tampa-area dog park by Gerald Declan Radford, who goes by the nickname “Dec.” The men started out on decent terms and were part of a group of acquaintances that socialized daily while walking their pets. It was a source of joy and created a budding sense of community in the neighborhood.