Remember this: Try as adults might, some things are just
ridiculous.
The little boy legally killed the deer in his home state
of Michigan. I say that is Michigan’s problem. This clears him of any wrong-doing,
legally.
From the articles, the parent and boy admit there were several hunting participants out to kill this animal. It is fairly skinny so there couldn't have been much meat except for burger and sausage.
The prudent question to ask here is: why advertise this
when it will be gifted with negative connotations and adult attacks on a child?
By now the boy realizes he has adults grouping around him like the buffalo so I
doubt he feels unsafe.
It isn’t about losing your right to hunt. It’s not about
a child’s right to hunt. It’s not really much about nothing. It is just about
the spectacular, spectacular which I have come to abhor.
I have seen this many times on the internet; persecution
and laments. I guess someone wants to prove their point of being singled out,
misrepresented, and disavowed. Also, the idea that someone needs other people
to rush to their aid to validate their entitled or legal right to do something
seems a bit so yesterday with this hunting fodder.
There are posted by others stating the albino or white deer
is an anomaly and should be smited off the breeding landscape of deerdom.
There is also the abuse subjugated on the child by the
public via the parent wanting their child to be famous. I couldn’t do that to
my son, as I have said before. I want to protect him not toss him out in the
fray, empty-handed or for money’s sake.
I also know there are people that do not like you. They
will one plus or like such things to get a rise out of you because deep down
you crawl under their skins. You’re welcome.
My problem with this tired storyline came in the form of
the SCDNR posting an article about this little boy to their website. It was
ambiguous as to whether the SCDNR supported it or not. I am sure there will be
a sound biological reason for the post.
This drama was playing out in Michigan, not South
Carolina. People have shot albino and pied deer here. It’s not made into a
three ring circus, which is what hunting has become. Setting the tone for
showing your ignorance, attacking your fellow man, prostrating children out to
start or win arguments on debates, and just low down dirty morals and ethics.
I began reading the posts on the SCDNR Facebook page.
One candid misogynist fellow commented, with colorful profanity, that women
perusing the SCDNR Facebook page needed to stay at the shopping mall and keep
posts to ourselves, as we didn’t hunt. Of
course, the SCDNR took the comments down which I was thankful for. I guess the
attitude against women hunting in South Carolina is alive and well in some
people.
It also illustrates how the article can polarize South
Carolina constituents using the SCDNR Facebook page to be for or against this
little kid shooting a deer. I wondered whether the poster at the SCDNR
understood or realized they were providing an outlet to make the constituents
using the services of the SCDNR look like ignorant southerners or fiends out to
attack a child. Why would someone do that? Is it that important to cause a
controversy?
I don’t live in the land of fairy tales and people do
act the same all over the world to different degrees, but why invite the devil
into your hunting lodge?
Granted the SCDNR hopefully does understand as a state
agency they should not dabble in picking and choosing individuals that go along
with personal beliefs or agendas. Those posts should be for their private
pages. This service the SCDNR provides is for everyone, not people just on one
bandwagon. It was not education because this fodder can be found elsewhere and
commented on outside of the SCDNR.
People didn’t seem to be pleased with the SCDNR person
posting this article. It’s too disruptive and that is the reason for it;
disruption.
When I considered the fall-out from the white deer I
thought people were concerned this little boy would think that there is nothing
he can’t tromp upon because he is entitled by law. What happens one day when he
gets older and this ideal has stuck with him? This ideal that has been
re-enforced by adults and he goes outside of the law because he feels entitled?
What then when he cries foul to being persecuted or misrepresented?
I asked myself, what is the real message being sent to
children?
I can understand the people of that area being upset.
There was probably some faux ownership of this animal that spiraled down into
perceiving it as a pet. There was also the hope that maybe one day they too
would see it. Now that day is gone unless another one appears. The next white
deer can be shot down because it is genetically undesirable, legal to hunt, or
just to spite everyone for killing it because you can.
There are hunting participants that do consider the
sentiment of non-hunters. They see these animals as something to keep around
because it gives people hope even if the animal is a mundane.
The dark side of this is hunting participants that will
go out of their way to kill any white deer just to hold it up to non-hunters’
faces, grin and say, “You can do nothing
about this.” Then walk off with a happy spite because they won. Won what I say?
They have subjected another person to loss and molestation while making
themselves look less than human. Maybe that is what human is; spiteful and
vindictive.
Given the child has some square right to flaunt his
quarry for bragging rights amongst the internet hunters, which was secured by
his family. It is not like he did an epic thing. He just shot another deer of a
different color. Not that I am down-playing his accomplishment, if that is what
you call it, but this is true. He is not a character in Homer’s Iliad that
quested for something and destroyed terrifying beasts along the way. The white
deer probably walked by or was on a corn pile. It didn’t jump up into the stand
or run from the trees with fangs bared.
I shake my head and laugh at this kind of thing.
Not too far from where I live dwells twin, albino girls.
Their mother is of African descent. I would watch their mother braid their powder
white hair down at the park. Sometimes they would ride bikes in the evening. I
wonder sometimes if people could have decided to take their life at birth
because they were considered genetic anomalies or weak genes. I then reflect on
the treatment of albinos in Africa. They have their body parts stolen by force
to go in potions or witch doctor remedies. One lives a normal life, the other
in fear, and the white deer doesn’t know it is in dire circumstance because of
its color. It gets killed anyway because it’s legal or someone wants its head
and hide. I could beg the question to let it just live. There will always be
another person with that desire to shoot it.
I’m waiting for the photo and story of a baby in diapers jumping into the fray of a wild hog herd, kill them all with one stroke, changes its diaper, writes its own article and shows up on the Joe Rogan show or the Sportsman’s Channel. All while planning to save everyone from hunger with just one fish.
Lessons learned:
Everything has a price on its head.
Everything can be ripped from this Earth for whatever reasoning.
Nothing is sacred.
Written by: W Harley Bloodworth
~Courtesy of the AOFH~
