Sportsmen and Women Must All Work Together
I often hear sportsmen and women talking about a particular type of sporting activity that they prefer only to talk down those activities that they have little or no interest in. There is great danger in this practice. With a low percentage of our population actually being involved in the outdoor sports we must work together to form a stronger base.
The recent comment that inspired this article was one about supporting the crossbow legislation that is now being considered. When one sportsmen mentioned to another that we need to support this bill, the other sportsmen replied we’re a gun club. We need to look at the larger picture here. If we are only willing to stand up for those things that are of particular interest to us, How can we depend on others to support our passions when they are attacked. .
There is a little lesson of history that I would like to share here. We don’t need to look that far back to see where one particular group was targeted and others took no action because it did not involve them. Later another group is attacked and again no other groups stand and take action. This process repeats itself over and over. Nobody seems to care as long as their group is left alone. However as soon as their group is targeted, they cry out and demand to know why nobody is supporting them. The answer is very simple, because when they were attacked you did nothing to support them and they are now gone.
As Sportsmen and women we are obligated to support our brothers and sisters in the pursuit of their interests. Failure to do so will leave us standing alone when they come to take our cherished traditions away.
And I’m sad to say we will have nobody to blame but ourselves, because we either couldn’t or just plain wouldn’t work together with a common interest when we still had a chance to do so. The only way to protect our interests is to protect the interests of others as a unified body of Sportsmen and women.
Steven La Rivee
July 2018
Sportsmen and Women Must All Work Together
I often hear sportsmen and women talking about a particular type of sporting activity that they prefer only to talk down those activities that they have little or no interest in. There is great danger in this practice. With a low percentage of our population actually being involved in the outdoor sports we must work together to form a stronger base.
The recent comment that inspired this article was one about supporting the crossbow legislation that is now being considered. When one sportsmen mentioned to another that we need to support this bill, the other sportsmen replied we’re a gun club. We need to look at the larger picture here. If we are only willing to stand up for those things that are of particular interest to us, How can we depend on others to support our passions when they are attacked. .
There is a little lesson of history that I would like to share here. We don’t need to look that far back to see where one particular group was targeted and others took no action because it did not involve them. Later another group is attacked and again no other groups stand and take action. This process repeats itself over and over. Nobody seems to care as long as their group is left alone. However as soon as their group is targeted, they cry out and demand to know why nobody is supporting them. The answer is very simple, because when they were attacked you did nothing to support them and they are now gone.
As Sportsmen and women we are obligated to support our brothers and sisters in the pursuit of their interests. Failure to do so will leave us standing alone when they come to take our cherished traditions away.
And I’m sad to say we will have nobody to blame but ourselves, because we either couldn’t or just plain wouldn’t work together with a common interest when we still had a chance to do so. The only way to protect our interests is to protect the interests of others as a unified body of Sportsmen and women.
Steven La Rivee
July 2018