A few years ago, my son was riding his bicycle on a path in Pioneer Park when the front tire hit an exposed root. The bicycle flipped, and he tumbled, falling hard; his arms were covered with cuts and abrasions.

I did not ask the city to cut down all the trees in Pioneer Park.

Last spring, a young owl, no doubt feeling his oats, swooped down over several surprised walkers. Evidently he startled them, for you can still see the warning signs posted in the park. No one asked the city to cage or exterminate all the birds in Pioneer Park.

The Open Space Conservancy Trust recently suggested that the city change part of the park from an off-leash to an on-leash park area. The proposal is unnatural and cruel to the hundreds of dog owners and their pets that walk the park’s trails every day. Each day here on our Island, people gather in Pioneer Park and stroll, their dogs frolicking about the park, chasing balls along the paths or in the woods, playing with their canine friends.

It is true that once in a great while an excited pooch, usually a puppy with dirty paws, will jump on an unsuspecting person getting mud on his or her clothes. That’s unfortunate and certainly the owner should be spoken to, although on the few occasions when this has happened to me owners have been uniformly profuse in their apologies. (Really, I didn’t mind.)

But I remind our readers that this is the Pacific Northwest. You don’t walk through a park in our rainy climate without expecting to get a little dirty.

It has also been claimed that dogs running through the forest can somehow damage flora and fauna. In fact, dogs, being animals, are part of the local fauna. They have wandered the forests for hundreds of thousands of years, and have proven no more dangerous to the plants than the deer, raccoons, squirrels, cats and chipmunks that also roam the park today.

My wife and I have walked our energetic Australian Shepherd (Joe) in Pioneer Park every weekday for the past eight years. In all that time, in all those thousands of walks, neither of us has ever observed a situation that was out of control, that endangered adults or children in any way. In fact, it’s quite commendable how responsible our Island’s dog owners (all of them, in our experience) have shown themselves to be.

Now, we live in a time when some people want to exclude whole groups of other people from the freedoms and privileges afforded to the rest of us, just because a tiny fraction of those groups offended us in some way. You only have to watch the debates of one political party to know who I’m talking about. Let’s resist the temptation to be swayed by a tiny minority. Let’s also not pass an ordinance that is far more likely to be honored in the breach than the observance. Instead, let us celebrate the community and fellowship that we all enjoy in Pioneer Park, where so many of us meet every morning, chat about the events of the day, throw balls for our dogs, talk about our children and families, and enjoy each others’ company. Let’s be proud of this special park, its people and its pets and this special Island we call our home.

Barry Briggs lives on Mercer Island.