|
|
|
|
To Reason or Not To Reason (Letter to the Orlando Sentinel in response to a column by Charley Reese, Oct. 5, 1989) Who does Charley Reese hunt with? Daniel Boone? Hunters today do not sleep on the ground! They sleep in air-conditioned RV’s with running water, microwave ovens and color TV’s. True to his extremist nature, even while making some valid points, Mr. Reese goes overboard in his defense to the point of absurdity. His portrait of “the hunter” as one whose primary interest is thinning the herd for its own benefit and mankind’s is ludicrous. The preying instinct in man, as with all predators, is both natural and strong. Let us be honest, though, we are not discussing the noble savage who hunts to feed and clothe his family. These are trophy hunters out to satisfy a primordial urge. Charley Reese has a slightly amusing habit of stating an argument with broad generalizations. To avoid the same atrocity let us consider a variety of hunters. There are of course the aforementioned comfort hunters, who venture into the wilderness and take with them the whole kitchen sink, along with the bar and the bedroom. Then there are the good old boys who take man’s best friend with them. They endure nature for hours at a time from a tree stand, with nothing but a flask of bourbon to keep them warm, until the dogs run a deer by. The hunter who comes closest to Mr. Reese’s frontiersman—like ideal is probably the poacher. Even these I’ll split into two rugged categories. The first, and somewhat admirable, is the true backwoods type who, in fact, does hunt to put food on the table. He is good though, recognizes no season, and bags his limit five, ten or more times a year! The second kind, the professional poacher, is a real Jack London character: in Africa he hunts elephants and takes only the tusks, or rhinos just for the horns. In America he slaughters alligators illegally for their hides and bears for their five hundred dollar gall bladders – he leaves the carcass to rot. Far too many of our “great American sportsmen, be they hunters or fishermen, are, as Charley puts it, “trailblazers”. They go into the wilds and leave a trail of spent shells, beer cans and pork rind bags for us to follow. My objection is not to hunting nor Mr. Reese’s defense of it. Many hunters are responsible, law—abiding conservationists – many are not. Like all extremists, however, everything to Mr. Reese is either black or white, right or wrong, good or evil. The world, though, is not black and white. It comes in shades of grey – blue, red and yellow. I hate to resort to name calling, but it seems some of today’s cranks and crackpots (Charley’s words) have become newspaper columnists! You had a good point, Charley, but your style of writing keeps it from hitting home, with anyone not already in your camp. I do thank you though for one explanation, “… reason is wasted on urban neurotics ….” I now understand why your column is so often devoid of reason. Copyright © October 1989 Michael D. Kerrigan |
