Subject: Re: Non-birder hostility: Survival Suggestion responses
Date: Feb 21 07:18:02 1996
From: "David P. Anderson" - davidp at wolfenet.com


Most of the complaints I have read about my posting are absolutely
correct. I did generalize, stereotype, and generally cover a very
intricate situation in a very shallow way. All of the thoughts, and most
of your responses, crossed my mind as I was writing that post.
Unfortunately, I could not think of any better way to express a
viewpoint that I have validated through my own experience and
observations. I guess my goal was to question why a special
interest group (birders) would feel persecuted by a relatively wide
spectrum of people (farmers, dairymen, ranchers, and their help )
without trying to determine the root cause. And labeling them "rednecks"
or "fundamentalists" doesn't determine a cause, it stereotypes people as
badly as I have been accused of. The suggestions I made about clothing
and noise, however, I stand by. The annoyance and frustration that
instantly appears when ones hours of patient effort are destroyed, be it
birding, hunting, fishing, or watching the tide change, have been
experienced by myself, and long discussed with others. Perhaps it is a
stereotype, but the only way to change a stereotype is to prove you
aren't part of it.

I fully support all efforts being made to save our world, be it
by money, time, or personal effort, and I fully support those of you
working professionally in these fields. Obviously however if the poor
farmer could do surveys, track migration patterns, catalog habitats
etc., he wouldn't be a farmer, he'd be a biologist, and somebody HAS to
be the farmer. None of the opinions or viewpoints I put in my earlier
post were contrived. All of them have been both expressed to me and
experienced by me. If you are not part of the group perpetrating these
circumstances, then complain to those who are. You probably have much
better communication skills than a guy whose public speaking skills were
learned in high school football huddles!

Dave

Knowledge comes only from Information. From Knowledge comes
Understanding, and only Understanding produces Love.