Thanks, Dr. Peterson for speaking out! mininggazette/page/content.detail/id/537504/Senator-opened-fire-on-wolves.html?nav=5004 Senator opened fire on wolves September 20, 2014 The Daily Mining Gazette To the editor: Congratulations, Senator Casperson, our eminent public servant, for leading the charge in the Michigan legislature to open fire on wolvesand, by the way, for crafting a re-election strategy to give you a second term in November. It didnt require much work, actually just inciting peoples irrational fear of wild animals with big teeth. Well, it did take an impressive series of misstatements, exaggerations, fabrications, and what some might consider outright lies. But you had a lot of help from state officials who thought they were furthering conservation, and from media like the Daily Mining Gazette. It seems you have found the secret of everlasting electoral life. Thank-you, Senator Casperson, for making us think youre worried about kids in day-care centers, or hard-working farmers doing the Lords business holding back the wilderness. Congratulations, Senator Casperson, for becoming a household name in every deer camp. Thats a large block of voters, and they will unquestionably remember your leadership in securing another target for them to shoot at. After all, what other good can come from a wolf, anyway? The Gazette endorsed the latest bill to pass the legislature, one that attempts to circumvent two referendums on the November ballot. But the Gazette didnt give Senator Casperson credit for depriving citizens of the right to a ballot referendum, a check and balance that Theodore Roosevelt considered essential to combat corruption in government. The Gazette acknowledged, correctly, that any danger wolves might really pose to people in the woods would not match that posed by dogs, bee stings, lightning, or car-deer collisions. The editorial could have emphasized that the most dangerous wild animal in Michigan, one that really kills people, is the white-tailed deer. I wonder how Copper Country residents who lost friends and relatives in such car accidents might feel about deer overabundance, something wolves can rectify in snow country. The Gazette editorial thought it good to shoot wolves and make people feel safer, not to mention providing a little security to all those animals with cloven hoofs, wild and domestic. Almost sounds like a Biblical quest. Come to think of it, I guess it is. Learning to live with wolves will always be a challenge, one that will be surmounted only when our unreasoned fear and hatred is replaced with knowledge and respect. Rolf Peterson HOUGHTON Editors note: The editorial Dr. Peterson refers to appeared in the Aug. 30 Daily Mining Gazette as part of our Other Views series, editorials from newspapers throughout Michigan. This particular editorial originated from The Daily News in Iron Mountain. As with all of the editorials in the Other Views series, this editorial does not necessarily reflect the views of the DMG management or editorial staff.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 13:52:18 +0000
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