so this bill proposes that public schools teach kids about hunting?
The state sees a deficiency in an area, where fewer and fewer citizens are meeting an optional, but needed (by a portion of the populous) civic duty. It's really just another vocab program.
why don't we just make a bill that provides more public schools and puts the focus on literacy instead, being that WV has some of the worst rates in the nation?
Everything in balance. Throwing more money at something that is already done doesn't always solve the problem. Making kids take yet a 3rd class in the same thing can sometimes have worse effects.
Here in Florida, they've finally started to end replacing recess with a 2nd or even 3rd math class when students are failing. Sometimes you can't just keep throwing more academics at some kids, especially when you take away some necessary extra-curricular.
Believe it or not, I actually don't think this IDEA is such a bad one. Enabling (or should I say alowing) poor people to be able to support themselves off the land is one of the best thing that you can do to combat poverty. In other words, let them tap into the resources that they allready have that are not being put to use, or at leats not being used by them.
It's more than that. It has everything do with conservation and the environment. If the citizens of West Virginia don't help assist with that, then the state has to either expend the resources to do so, or just let the issues get worse.
Animal population control is necessary. As are conservational efforts that people actually pay licenses for to be a part of. Hunting is just one aspect. It not only nets the state revenue, but more importantly, replaces the manpower and services that they normally would have to do themselves.
except this will not help the national economy. People who know how to hunt and who don't feel a strong relationship with the government, not to mention are broke and living in a shack, are not going to pay for a permit or license.
Sigh, I think you're missing the point.
Teaching people to be self-sufficient and not having to rely on the economic system to provide for them isn't going to get them more invovled with investing in the economy.
Sigh, I don't think they're looking at that. They're trying to get future citizens to help maintain the state's environment and wildlife. Less and less citizens are showing interesting is obtaining those licenses and assisting with that.
And I really don't think that people who hunt for SPORT have any respect for the land or for the animals. I don't think anyone can say that they do unless thier intentions are simply to leave them alone and thier homes intact and let them live thier lives as God and nature intended.
Then you wouldn't know the first thing about what they not only do for the environment, but what they do to help the environment. If hunters don't help control some of the wildlife population, and if wildlife groups don't help with related endeavors, it falls on to the state (and its expenses) to do so,
regardless.
I've never hunted. But I remember the first time I caught my first fish when I was very young. It wasn't an adult catfish. I distinctly remember my father telling me that I must throw it back. All I could remember was that I wanted to keep my "prize," until my father explained to me many things, and continued to do so every time we went out.
But it doesn't matter what you or I think. Ever talk to someone with the US Game and Wildlife, or even just a National Park Ranger? They could really "fill you in" why it's very important that hunters and other conservationalists exists. We've grown up with the attitude that guns and hunting are bad. It's quite the opposite.
Furthermore, what's the first thing most people do with their first gun? They hold it wrong. They hold it stupidly. They hold it dangerously. They do a lot of other, stupid things. Teaching kids to respect conservation, to respect the environment, to respect wildlife, to respect guns is never a bad thing. In fact,
teachers who are in a classroom are the
worst to do so, or even the ones that are big naturalists are often
prevented from teaching these details because they are not "political correct."
We've created
mass ignorance with the stigma that "this is bad" is classic Mr. Mackey-type non-sense. Hunters have always been extremely helpful for the park service and are some of the best conservationlists that a state can rely on. You fail to understand this, as do most people, because there are fewer and fewer that do. And states are starting to feel that burden. West Virginia is one of them, because it has massive reserves and other areas of increasing concern.
Being that I visit West Virginia regularly, and the lack of citizens assisting the states in these endeavors, maybe it's time I end my own ignorance and take the time to show interest in where I can help.