tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703913.post115315318629409894..comments2023-10-02T04:41:34.722-04:00Comments on Marry in Massachusetts: Beavers in Becketmassmarrierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02358207247771711952noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703913.post-1153476019084674442006-07-21T06:00:00.000-04:002006-07-21T06:00:00.000-04:00Your provincialism seems astonishing for someone w...Your provincialism seems astonishing for someone who has lived as long where and under the conditions you do. Put down the beer and put on your glasses; I see reasons for trapping and think -- as the post includes -- that the beaver trapping law was emotionally based and ill conceived.<BR/><BR/>There are indeed savvy rural residents, and likely as many hick fools per capita as urban ones in your town or mine. The issues in the post include that I was too ignorant to have considered this man's issue before he raised them, that the way this became the law of the land illustrates process problems that have ill effects, and that he was as ignorant about how the laws were made and taxes allocated as I was of his flooding problems and trapping solutions.<BR/><BR/>I learned from him, but he loved the idea of that bad old government passing stupid laws (it didn't) and spending his money on Boston issues (he gets more than he gives) that he's not likely to let that go.<BR/><BR/>My family came from West Virginia, where the "gummint" is always a good and handy villain too.massmarrierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02358207247771711952noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703913.post-1153438967452830472006-07-20T19:42:00.000-04:002006-07-20T19:42:00.000-04:00I should know by now that it's futile to suggest t...I should know by now that it's futile to suggest to urban people that rural people might possibly have a brain in their heads. Usually I just shut up and allow urban progressive interests to hold on to their unacknowledged prejudices and shoot themselves in the foot by failing to build bridges with people unlike themselves. Such political self-mutiliation may be bloody, but it's not a sport. Neither, as I pointed out, is trapping.<BR/><BR/>"You, Uncle, are welcome to catch Castor, as far as I am concerned" is a remark unworthy of you. Its only value is to reinforce my deep concern that urban progressives would rather hang onto their preconceptions than to open their understanding and find ways to build their base amongst people they are simply giving away to the right.Unclehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17576979900477102398noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703913.post-1153319840122194042006-07-19T10:37:00.000-04:002006-07-19T10:37:00.000-04:00You well made the point that ballot initiatives ar...You well made the point that ballot initiatives are abused. Ignernt urbanites outvote the rural minority. Ignernt anti-SSMs hope they can outvote the pro-marriage folk. (I voted for the leg-trap ban, I think. What did I know?)Miss Grimkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04375944897883381376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703913.post-1153182578244224792006-07-17T20:29:00.000-04:002006-07-17T20:29:00.000-04:00I don't denigrate the dad's experience. However, I...I don't denigrate the dad's experience. However, I am against blood sports for their own sake -- killing animals for amusement, mounting antlers but no eating of the meat, using the pelt or otherwise owning up. Killing to kill is inhuman.<BR/><BR/>You, Uncle, are welcome to catch Castor, as far as I am concerned.<BR/><BR/>The dispute I have with the Becket dad is his absurd contention that his hard-earned tax dollars go to support Boston. Bovine feces! The bucks here come from the few big cities, with the poeple, businesses and real estate bases. Washington, Mass., pays far less than it gets in revenue sharing and general funds. The commonwealth pays for the urban and exurban infrastructure, the highways, the education and on and on. The cities are left staging the immigrants, dealing with the slums, educating the masses and more. Boston can't even raise or spend its own funds without state approval for anything significant.<BR/><BR/>The issue for me and the comparison is how ballot initiatives are driving such issues. These are not the legislative grievances for which the process became Article XLVIII of our constitution. Instead, we have interest groups pounding through their concerns and manipulating the emotions of voters. Right now, we see this inane SSM amendment. What's next?massmarrierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02358207247771711952noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703913.post-1153178287385496622006-07-17T19:18:00.000-04:002006-07-17T19:18:00.000-04:001. I grew up country. My brother trapped beaver as...1. I grew up country. My brother trapped beaver as a part-time high school job. So solly: most of the hype about suffering beavers is just that: raw, undistilled hype. Even the leghold traps were costly and trappers knew exactly where each one was. That's a skill beyond the comprehension of urban people.<BR/><BR/>2. My urbanised daughter took one of her clinical affils in darkest upstate NY and was brought up short by the importance country people put on such issues. I didn't whitewash the experience for her, and she had the wisdom to learn from it.<BR/><BR/>3. I have never understood, will never understand, why urban people insist on taking such an unjustified superior attitude to rural culture. This behaviour is a free gift to the most cynical forces of the right: The urban left GIVES this wedge issue away. The people who lose most are the rural poor who otherwise could benefit from most progressive stances. Progressives generally lose by giving potential allies away. Could it be that the urban rich truly do not give a damn about the rural poor? That's what the rural poor think: perhaps they're right.<BR/><BR/>For crissakes, when is anyone on the progressive side going to LEARN? Urban people do not know everything. If progressives mean to win, they need to start learning from people like this gentleman from Washington, MA. <BR/><BR/>It is tempting, but absurd, to compare a livelihood issue for rural people to the SSM issue. That is merely the far-right argument from the opposite pole. "The people" should never have had a chance to vote on the traps, either. It is not your problem if you live in Newton or JP. If you can't be bothered to understand it from the POV of those for whom it is a problem, perhaps you should neither vote on such things, nor give yourself airs for being on the correct side of some other issue. It's as much an argument for the fallacy of western and eastern MA being the same state. That issue has burnt since Shay's Rebellion, and will go on burning until something gives urban progressives some sense.<BR/><BR/>Wish I could have met that man: we'd have much in common.<BR/><BR/>PS: I voted against the banning of leghold traps from experience and for just these reasons.Unclehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17576979900477102398noreply@blogger.com