Numbers and RG

[Ron Gatrelle]

What a day this is. I got back at midnight last night from a two day
collecting/ research trip and combined family holiday - don't try this.
Then, got to bed at 4:30 a.m. and up at 10:30. Sorting specimens,
measuring, data (two cryptic species one undescribed). Trying to get a
female to oviposit. Trying to get a plant in the ground before the sun
comes around  too much. Going through 45 emails - answered a couple easy
ones, but working in and out on one on collecting, Neil etc.  Then this
post. I can't resist addressing it - below.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Patrick Foley" <patfoley at csus.edu>

> Neil and other furious followers of the furry fliers,
SNIP
> Perhaps Ron could explain this better than I. Ron appears to mainly
>admirable in his viewpoints but sometimes given to a strange malady I
notice a lot in the Southern United States (where I was born and partly
raised). There >is a strong anti-authoritarian viewpoint there which does
not mix well with >the strong religious and promilitary stylings of the
region. (I should also >mention that I was raised in a strongly religious
community and that my >father was a military professional, although not
Southern himself - my >mother and her clan were). My
> point is that I see in Ron's voluminous forthpourings lots of apparent
> contradictions: good natural history, wariness of science, love of
butterflies
> and their habitat, distrust of the government which does a lot to
preserve that
> habitat and preserve those butterflies, tolerance of others, attacks on
> pro-choice lepidopterists etc.
>

THANK YOU VERY MUCH PATRICK. For looking for the best and trying to figure
out this idiot (me) who is only known by e-posts to-most. I am a Midwestern
Quaker transplanted to the South (1968) via the military. I was "away" from
my faith when I went in the military (1967) but came out (and back to) my
Quaker anti-war anti-establishment roots. Yes, I don't trust government one
millimeter - and nobody else should either. Power corrupts and absolute
power corrupts absolutely. Government is as absolute as it gets on this
planet.  Government is a necessary evil in an imperfect (sinful) world -
which is why Democracy is essential AND freedom of speech and press. ( I
once made every preacher I know mad at me because I publicly stood up for a
topless strip bar government was trying to zone out of existence. I did not
approve of the activity and preach against it. However, I stood beside them
because if the City could be given the power to use new zoning standards to
zone a strip club out of business - then they could also zone my church out
of existence!) I don't want government to have that power - period. The
religions and athirst alike love America because we have the simple freedom
to be.

I don't like TV preachers and big religion either even though I am now a
Pentecostal and ordained in a denomination which numbers in the millions.
Why did I join this denomination? Theologically we are pretty close and
what I don't like about it - I figured I could effect more cahnge throwing
rocks inside the structure than from outside it.

AH! Same for my joining up with the leps world after almost 20 years of
being on the outside or at least outskirts.  I would not have joined the
denomination nor the current leps scene if I did not agree with the vast
majority of what was stood for. But I am an activist, a rebel, a reformer,
a verbal rock thrower at that which I think needs to go. Jesus, Gandhi,
Martin L. King Jr. and many others were real trouble makers but nonviolent
at the same time. The trouble they caused was by their words. Words of
fact - but mostly of the heart.

I have sat on the sidelines for 20 years and watched the Birders
(watchers)invade the Lepidopterists (collectors) land, move us out to the
reservation, and then insist we adopt their language and customs. Might
makes right. We have now become so oppressed that a grown man working on
his PhD now feels he must apologetically (almost ashamedly) ask for
information about where to collect specimens for his research via a dinky
chat group. Hey, why not just ask permission?  Unless collators begin to
stand up to what is now nothing but bullying it will absolutely come to
no-collecting by ANYONE without a permission slip.  We might even have to
wear a "mark" when not collecting (as proposed for non Muslims in
Afghanistan now) so the environmental waccos will know to stay away from us
lest they be polluted.

I got on these chat groups for lots of positive reasons and camaraderie
with those of like mind.  I also got on because I'm torqued about this
anti-collectOR stuff that has peaked in the last 5 years. I will not go on
the reservation or wear their cloths nor adopt their religion. End of mini
editorial and back to post.

> Overall I see Ron not as part of a monolithic regressive force (which we
>certainly do have in this polarized nation), but as part of the divided
national >character. It is aggravating at times, but it has its charms.

I know it is not "liked" and therefore it makes me not "liked".  Believe me
I have often very seriously considered crawling back into my hole. It does
not feel good to not be liked. But as Neil and Paul, who have very strong
beliefs, I feel the issues are more important than personal popularity.  I
am not educated. I don't  have a file full of data and facts. I have a heat
and what my heart tells me is that butterfly collectors, the Lepidopterists
type of societies, etc.  have been getting it in the butt for a long time
from a lot of people who are obviously real good at dishing it out but not
at taking it.

>
> Anyway I hope Ron and Neil can see a little bit into each other's nature.
You
> are not enemies.

I do not see Neil as an enemy. I know nothing of him. I do consider some of
his extreme applications of his "facts" as an enemy to me personally, to
collectors, to scientific research, to human freedom. While he says he
recognizes a place for collecting it is only as he sees fit. He also throws
the baby out with the bath water at times. But who am I to complain - I've
thrown out a few babies myself too. Fanatics, zealots, movers and shakers
tend to be messy.

Lastly, I do not view most birders or watchers as the "enemy". But it just
so happens that all who are the bonafied enemies to the Lepidopterists'
societies and collectors are often birders and always just watchers. We
didn't start this war - they did.  Just as we collectors need to regulate
our own bad apples - so do  watchers.



 
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