Utopia ... was Fwd: Re: NY Times Butterflying Article

[Kelly Richers]

Anne-Thank you for your thoughtful comments.  One of the most common difficulties that I encounter as a middle school administrator is that students (and all to frequently adults) do not realize that the thought processes of the "other side" of an argument may not be the same as theirs.  Until one can discover what agenda motivates a person, one will not be able to ascertain what that person hopes to accomplish with his or her argument.  You have put this argument very succicently.  There is a middle ground, and that is to recognize the basis from which others are stating their viewpoint.  Thank God I collect moths, which have not reached the state of controversy as butterflies.

>>> viceroy at anu.ie 06/11/01 11:36PM >>>
What I think of, when I think of St. Francis, is his death bed scene.
There he was, this holy and famous man, who had suffered horribly at the
hands of his well-meaning doctors. He was surrounded by his brother
Franciscans. 
They, rather than chanting prayers of a soothing nature, were holding
off the struggling crowds of the faithful, all of whom wanted a relic
from the saint; a toe, a finger, maybe a rib ... and who would happily
have ripped him into shreds in order to buy their way into paradise. 
Now, *those* were collectors. 
As for the Albigensian heretics, we had to kill them in order to save
them. Direct instructions from God, you know. There is plenty of
information available about all this, and many of St. Francis' writings
have been preserved. None of that stuff belongs on this list. 

I think the anti-collectors see the activity of the collectors as much
like the relic-seekers at St. Francis' death bed. Now, if the collectors
are seeing themselves as a replay of the Albigensian heretics (you can
tell they are heretics because they lost the argument), and are
wallowing in their martyrdom  instead of getting on with the science, we
indeed have a problem. 
The Great Auks and the Passenger Pigeons did not perish because of
habitat destruction. The former were interesting and the latter were
tasty. The Carolina Paroquet was annoying, so we wiped them out. Thus
perish all pests. 

But, if every child in the world had a well-curated, well-labeled insect
collection, not just butterflies but some of whatever he/she came
across, and a mentor to aid the child in the journal-keeping that should
accompany this activity, Wanda, you have to admit that the world would
become a much nicer place, for the bugs and all of us. 
The collectors who post to this list have made it clear that their major
interest is habitat preservation and restoration. That's a good lesson
to teach children. 

The mentors, one hopes, will not permit their charges to trample
greenery at random, collect rare or endangered bugs casually, or indulge
in "stamp-collecting" with pressure on those rare butterflies. 
As I recall, Tom actually reared most of the rare butterflies he was
caught with. Teaching the children to rear and release (locally found)
rare butterflies in their gardens, after creating appropriate habitat
... well, that would certainly enrage the scientists, if counting bugs
were their primary goal. But, if the scientists were involved in
designing these gardens, tagging the released butterflies, working with
the children to restore the environment, I think they could be happy
with the results. 

As for heresies, I find that most of my ancestors were obliged to leave
their homelands hastily, having chosen a brand of religion the
government happened to be gunning for. Troublemakers, the lot of them.
Oh, a rich assortment of religions, and, if my grandparents hadn't
happened to be converted to Catholicism, I should be less able to
describe to you St. Francis' last days. 
I think that if you (on both sides) find yourself spending a great deal
of time justifying your actions, you might need to consider them more
carefully. 
"Consider, in the bowels of Christ, consider, you might be wrong." 
Me, I think it is all right to collect, all right not to collect, and a
pain in the ass to argue about it. 
Anne Kilmer, NABA member
Mayo, Ireland

Patrick Foley wrote:
> 
> Dear foaming fanciers of the furry fliers,
> 
> Clearly I did miss the point, which I assumed had something to do with
> butterfly collecting.
> 
> You know what I really hate about animal rights advocates ( I once stumbled
> upon an outdoor revival meeting of these neo-Hitlerites)? Their songs are dumb
> and they don't sing on tune. It was quite a comedown from the civil-rights and
> anti-war meetings of my youth. It is painful to admit in the face of this
> musical mediocrity, that their arguments have nothing to do with their music or
> with Adolf Hitler. While I do not always agree, a good overview is Animal
> Liberation by the philosopher Peter Singer, that ill-named man. I believe the
> preHitlerite Francisco d'Asisi had something to say on the subject also.
> 
> Yours in struggle,
> Doktor Patrick Foley
> patfoley at csus.edu
>


------------------------------------------------------------ 

   For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:

   http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/private/leps-l/attachments/20010612/0dcc782e/attachment.html