Saturday, November 14, 2009
Hunting teaches a reverence for life
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Chuck White
White, of Roanoke, is a general contractor and lifelong outdoorsman.
Every year about this time, we hear from the anti-hunting brigades telling us how cruel we are because of our hunting of poor defenseless animals ("Hunting does more harm than good," Nov. 5 letter). What planet does Rita Ross live on where young hunters are taught to kill anything that moves? I can only assume she was instructed in hunting by an idiot mentor.
I am a hunter, as was my father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and so on back through the ages. I have taught my son to hunt, as well as many of his friends who didn't have the benefit of a father present in the home. What hunting instruction instills in a young person is not to kill everything that moves, but to firmly identify your quarry and to safely make your shot, being aware that a bullet has no conscience and will go wherever you point it to go.
It also instills the ability to adapt to their surroundings, away from the TV and video games, as well as the ability to focus, to observe, to sit silently in nature, to bond with traditions, to bond with an adult mentor and to respect and revere life.
That may sound contradictory, but when young people realize how quickly life can end, they develop a new respect for life, and take the death of any living being very seriously. I have never witnessed, in more than 40 years of hunting both public and private land, the kind of wanton slaughter that Ross espouses.
My son is in college now and spends a fair amount of his free time hiking, backpacking, hunting, kayaking or fishing. He is majoring in an outdoor-related discipline, where he can help others not as fortunate as he was to be able to access nature and have an experienced adult present. He is a respectful and well-rounded young man, as are his friends. It doesn't appear that we created "brutish-natured" adults by our introduction of these young people to hunting.
They underwent eight hours of mandatory NRA-sponsored firearms safety training before getting their hunting licenses. They don't mishandle firearms because they know and have witnessed the consequences of what weapons can do. They respect the value of life, and are better men for it.
The hunting "mindless culture of the killing of animals" is a fantasy that Ross has created; it just doesn't exist in reality. Hunters spend a disproportionate amount of time in the woods and fields year round, compared to the general population. Ask any hunter's wife or husband. Hunters are the consummate conservationists. Ask any law enforcement official who is the first to report acts of trespass, mischief or violence in the woods. It's hunters. If the wilds are not preserved and protected, no hunter would have access to enjoy his pursuits. Every hunter has drilled into him at a very young age the duty to preserve and pass nature unspoiled to the next generation.
If you want to witness a mindless culture of killing, sit a kid down for those same hours in front of a video game where the results of the action of taking a life are never held in your hands. There is your culture of violence, not in the woods. There is no reverence in the constant death in a video game. There is no sitting quietly watching dawn break, listening to the woods wake up. There is no contemplation and resolving matters of personal importance while quietly sitting on a deer stand.
There is no ADD in a hunter, as you focus intently on every sight and sound in the woods. If hunting breeds nothing but brutes with a violent, uncaring nature, will Ross please explain why the neighborhoods of rural America, where almost every kid hunts, are not hotbeds of murder and viciousness?
I'd feel a lot safer in any rural area, knowing that people there have training in firearms and have seen the results of pulling a trigger, than I would in urban Roanoke, day or night. If you want young people to grow into caring, responsible adults, take the time to take a kid, any kid, hunting or fishing. It's the best thing you'll ever do for them, or for yourself.
