The Tale of the Possum: It's not as slick as you think

The latest news out of Raleigh has all the makings of a Hollywood comedy.  Well, maybe not a Christmas release at a theater near you, but definitely a made for TV movie.  I can even see the potential for a catchy tune that people around the world could lip-sync to on YouTube.  We can take possums in so many directions.

grinnus alottus

We southerners love the ole possum.  He takes us back to our rural roots, waddling about with a perpetual smile that hints that a tree filled with plump persimmons is just around the corner.  True or not, we all grew up hearing the older folks talk about eating possums during the hard times.  I recall an instructor in my wildlife officer recruit class asking if any of us had ever broken the game laws.  Most of us reluctantly raised our hands.  He then asked how many had gotten caught.  One recruit raised his hand and admitted to being charged with hunting possums in the closed season.  He had instant credibility with the rest of the class.

www.clayscorner.com

I wrote in an earlier post about PETA’s attempt to alter the New Year's Eve festivities in the southern Appalachian community of Brasstown. NC.  A thing I love about mountain people is that they don’t like to be pushed around – I guess it is a carryover from our Scots/Irish roots.  So, in 2013 a mountain legislator introduced, and the General Assembly passed, the Opossum Right-to-Work Act (even Hollywood couldn’t make that up) to give the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) the authority to issue a captivity license for the Clays Corner Possum Drop.  That will show PETA.

Then PETA decided to push back (again) and officials from the NCWRC have spent an exorbitant amount of time defending their legal issuance of that license.  NCWRC staff from across the state have been repeatedly subpoenaed to court.  Countless conservation dollars have been wasted in an attempt to appease a small number of people who are opposed by an equally small number of people.  Maybe it is time to call a truce. 

Truce???  No way.  Another thing I love about my people is that we will fight even if we know we will lose.  We ain’t scared of an ass whoopin.

So, let’s introduce another bill.  And this time, let’s get the NCWRC off the hook.  Let’s make Clay County exempt from the NCWRC’s opossum regulations for a week in late December to early January.  That will allow someone to catch a possum, hold it in captivity for that week, display it at the Possum Drop and then turn it loose before the week is up.  Oh yeah, we are winning now.

This news comes as North Carolina educators continue to offer complaints about teacher pay (among the lowest in the country) and as legislators introduce a bill that will make it illegal to reveal the chemicals used in fracking.  It causes one to wonder about our legislative priorities and how North Carolinians are viewed by others.

The scary thing is that there are always unintended consequences to legislation.  It is the whole "slippery slope" metaphor being played out in slow motion as our comedy takes a tragic turn.  If I only learned one thing from 29 years in the law enforcement profession, you can never “law” your way out of a problem.  Laws are part of the solution, but will rarely take us all the way to our desired outcome.  This is a another example of applying a technical fix (a law) to an adaptive problem (societal shifts).

It all strikes me as childish and downright embarrassing.  The social climate changes and just because it was acceptable fun to revel in the possum on New Year’s Eve for many years doesn’t mean we should continue.  On the other hand, it is one possum for one night - a family event – where is the harm?  We are now in an age where compromise is viewed as weak.  “We have to stand for something or we will fall for anything” or something like that.  I'm all for taking a stand, but with all the issues that desperately need to be addressed, I'm certain that that stand shouldn't be over a possum.

As for that possum smile.  I’ve now come to view it as a knowing smirk.

Roosevelt and Muir: Camping out a Solution

I am an introvert in the truest sense of the word.  I am the happiest when I am working alone or in a very small group.  I can operate outside those parameters, speaking in public or leading a class, however, it is physically, mentally and emotionally exhausting.

But, over the course of my career I learned that Aristotle's quote, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” is true.  In even the most diverse group, if we continue to raise our perspective and point of view, we will ultimately find commonality.  Then, working together we can accomplish great things.

The photo below is one of my favorites.  I had a framed copy in my office and now it is in my home office.  On the surface these two men could not have been more different.  Theodore Roosevelt was a world traveler, an adventurer, a politician and president of the United States, New York City police commissioner, soldier, big game hunter and cowboy (the list goes on and on).  He was one of the original founders of the Boone and Crockett Club, a group of hunters that fueled the early the wildlife conservation movement.

John Muir seems to be the complete opposite of Roosevelt.  Muir fled to Canada in 1864 to avoid being drafted into the Union Army during the American Civil War.  He had a keen interest in botany and all things in the natural world. He helped co-found the Sierra Club with the goal of preserving of our wild places.

Roosevelt and Muir met in Oakland, California in 1903 and rode to Yosemite.  They hiked into the backcountry, sleeping under the stars where they discussed the mismanagement of the park by the state.  Even though they held different philosophical views in many areas, they agreed that Yosemite should be preserved under federal control and management.

These types of joint efforts still occur today.  Individuals work locally on small tracts of land or join with others in groups such as the National Wildlife Turkey Federation, Ducks Unlimited or the National Audubon Society.  Privately funded conservancy groups purchase land that is turned over to various governmental agencies for both preservation and conservation focused management of our natural resources.  Federal and state organizations work together to maximize their resources.  Working together the efforts of the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

Unfortunately, we sometimes lose focus on the higher goal.  Recently, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has taken the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) to court over The Possum Drop, a New Year’s Eve festivity held in the mountains of southwestern North Carolina.  PETA is concerned that the opossum may be traumatized.  In 2013, a judge ruled the NCWRC reimburse PETA’s attorney fees of $74,446 for their previous challenge of the Possum Drop.  PETA is once again filing suit challenging the NCWRC’s ability to issue a captivity license for this event after the N.C. General Assembly clarified the statute  allowing the issuance of the license.

PETA and the NCWRC may be as different as Roosevelt and Muir.  One organization promotes hunting and fishing as a means to conserving and managing the state’s wildlife resources while the other views animals as having the rights of humans.  That seems to be a wide chasm to cross.  However, if Roosevelt, the Rough Rider war hero and world traveling big game hunter, can find common ground with Muir, the pacifist botanist, surely these two groups can find a spot where their missions intersect and allows our wildlife is managed in a way that considers all biological, social, political and economic factors.

What if the attorneys stepped aside (and took their $400 an hour fees with them) and we let those with the ability to initiate change work together to find a resolution?  What if special interest groups took a holistic approach instead of one designed to fill the coffers?  I would venture a guess that Roosevelt and Muir talked less about their differences and focused on their mutually desired outcomes.  Maybe our leaders should consider a long hike into the backcountry and a discussion around a campfire under the stars.