Dear HCN,
I appreciated the
Hotline pointing out that Utah is slaughtering the mascot of the
SLC Olympic games (HCN, 3/12/01: State to coyote hunters: Let the
games begin). Each time I see the California flag, I imagine
(that’s all I can do, given limited funds) full-page ads in
the L.A., San Francisco and Sacramento papers that ask, “When will
the state be worthy of its flag?” The grizzly should be restored in
California, or the state should own up and put an SUV or
subdivision on its flag. How many sports teams from high school to
the pros, how many car makers, use the names of predators and other
animals? Teams and car makers and much of the society that
patronizes both go without a thought for the daily destruction of
those very animals. How much more precious and worth protecting is
the real thing than the stolen name and image and the narrow human
purpose to which it is put? Maybe a good way to raise money for
conservation is to legislate a licensing requirement: Use the name
of wild things to make a buck or draw the public and you pay (in
proportion to the benefit received) to keep it alive in healthy
habitat.
David
Johns
McMinnville, Oregon
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The real deal vs. the stolen image.
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