Aren’t the rights of free speech and peaceful assembly grand?
Free speech, specifically the inherent right to voice an opposing opinion, is a right many of us take for granted here in the States. Folks living in huge swaths of the world don’t enjoy such freedoms; some would even argue that the freedom to speak one’s mind has lost a fair amount of ground in the last decade here at home.
We’re all for free speech and the ability to broadcast one’s opinion, no matter how illogical, inane, moronic, absurd, distracting, tangential or frivolous that nugget of thought might be.
Free speech (as we’ve come to embrace it here in the States) is even more entertaining in these days of digital distribution; amusing things people say and do can be, and often are, disseminated widely in a flash.
Pickets and Protests, Fish and Fisheries
The Salem Statesman Journal posted an article yesterday (Picketing Planned for Native Fish Society Event) reporting on the ongoing feud between the Sandy-based Three Rivers Sportsman’s Alliance and The Native Fish Society. The TRSA has issued a call for ‘hundreds’ to picket and protest the upcoming NFS banquet scheduled in coming weeks.
Thankfully TRSA’s executive director Greg Osburn reports the protest’s goal is education and not disruption –
“We’re not going to shut it down. We’re not going to break any laws,” Osburn said. “We’re not going to block streets, and we’re not going to block the entrance. But the people who go into the venue are certainly going to be educated.”
The TRSA has been doing a bit of that education on their Facebook page and you can even order your anti-NFS shirt there today.
Frankly we applaud the TRSA’s stated educational objective; naivley I’ve only been to one large picket and protest event – it was designed to intimidate and harass.
As a relative outsiders to the long-standing morass that is steelhead and salmon management in the Pacific NW (yep that’s you, OR and WA), we can’t help but wonder if all that energy and effort wouldn’t be far better spent in setting up a formal team from the TRSA, NFS and whoever the hell else wants to have a say, actually finding common ground and working together, and addressing the issues with actual managers of the fish and fishery at the State and Federal levels.
Demonizing a non-profit group instead of taking on the actual, empowered decision makers brings to mind Don Quixote and tilting at windmills, though grinding through channels doesn’t generate near as much press, sell T-shirts or energize the troops. (And sometimes tilting at windmills can seem fulfilling and downright noble – we’ve sure done our share of it over the years.)
At least this sort of rhetoric adds a new layer of interest to the discussion and beats the hell out of groups just firing attorneys at one another.
Help, Help, I’m Being Repressed.
Our first thought on reading this today (hat tip Moldy Chum) was this scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, though we’re greatly reassured knowing the TRSA’s plans are purely educational in nature.
Cheers to all steelheaders and salmon fishers out there today.
