The exchange inspired by Bryce Andrews’ “Living
Precariously With Wolves and Cattle,” has revealed a striking
contrast in soul and substance on opposite sides of the divide over
management of public rangelands in the American West
(HCN, 8/20/07). Andrews’ description of killing
one wolf and participating, at least indirectly, in the killing of
three others to protect the cattle on a ranch on which he worked is
deeply personal and full of feeling and humanity. As I read his
account I felt I was meeting a person who was reasonable,
respectful, honest and sensitive – the kind of person you could get
to know and work with to do just about anything, including keep the
West as wild as possible in this age of cyberspace and ex-urbanism.
In contrast, the three letters critical of his essay in
the last HCN read like they were taken straight
from a script of political talking points. They bristle with
confrontative rhetoric, cliched villainization, inflated outrage,
and phony statistics, some of which make it clear the author has no
idea what he is talking about.
The exchange reminded me
of why I left the mainstream environmental movement to work
directly with ranchers in collaborative groups. I’ll take the
results I can get working with people like Andrews over what
political raging can achieve any day.
Dan
Dagget
Santa Barbara, California
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Rhetoric vs. reasonableness.
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