Circus Tears!

The famous clown Emmett Kelly of Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey altered his makeup after July 6, 1944 with the addition of a painted tear beneath his eye and the rest shall we say is history. It was forever known as “The day the clowns cried”.

His permanent tear and perpetual silence commemorated the great circus fire in Hartford, Connecticut when the main tent burst into flames and over 160 lives, many of them children, were lost in a short period of time. The unidentified body of Little Miss was never claimed and remained a mystery until recent times. The sadness of that day was recorded in this new clown face for the whole world to see and triggered changes in laws that prohibited the circus from coming to Connecticut for some time.

We are now confronted with a new assault on the circus with Connecticut Bill 6555 in the 2009 session, An Act Concerning the Humane Treatment of Elephants. In this bill the mere possession of the tool commonly used in the customary manner to control these wild animals would become a misdemeanor. In all likelihood this act essentially bans “the circus” from “coming to town”.

After all, the animals are trained and controlled by such practices around the world and are not about to be retrained just to come to Connecticut . Uncontrolled elephants would certainly present additional problems that this law does not address. Zoos seem to be exempt, but you wonder how the keepers control these beasts.

This law, then, only has the undesirable effect of banning circuses in Connecticut and the moments of magical imagination that only a live circus can provide to old and young alike.

But Dad (or Mom or Partner), all the other kids in other states get to go, PLEASE!!!

What special interest group could be so mean?