Give the “us versus them” a break
To the Expositor:
Whilst I am in agreement with much of your editorial on hunting (‘Hunting is not a sport in the North—it is a way of life,’ November 22, Page 4), could you please give the “them versus us” meme a rest. I suspect most people’s opposition to hunting is based upon perceived cruelty, pain and suffering, or the presumed “rights” of all life on Earth, naive belief or not. Perhaps your mocking of wanting to protect “God’s gentle creatures” goes some way to explain man’s incessant cruelty to man and beast alike.
I also suspect the “huge concentrations of our populations piled storey upon storey in urban centres” are paying most of the taxes that subsidize our bridges, roads, schools, hospitals, ferry and local newspaper, and the tens of thousands of seasonal visitors that spend money here help raise the Island out of what otherwise might be abject poverty. (Probably to the dismay of those that settled here to escape our great “civilization.”)
Finally, the last thing you should be criticizing is their consumption of immense amounts of vegetable, meat and fish each and every day. Those long lineups outside Barney’s at midday are for their leftovers. It’s not like we are all surviving on hawberries and maple syrup here.
David Samuels
Tehkummah
