Thursday, August 6, 2015

Cecil the lion: We Will Remember, the Killer Not So Much

Cecil the lion: Twisted logic behind hunting (Opinion) - CNN.com 


I'm thinking, to kill a lion is a shameful thing. There is no game here. No old-school hunting need here. Just trophy hunting. Just ego-hunting. Just the desire to kill something beautiful, and grand. I'm thinking the hunter is a very small man. I'm thinking mankind is barely able to get out of the need to kill each other, and innocent animals (and let's be honest: this lion did nothing to the hunter, and they surely had shotguns if his little bow charade did not work out and Cecil charged).

Cecil was grand. He became the leader of a tribe at an older age. He should have been allowed to live out his life, as we all should.

I've signed petitions to Zimbabwe hoping to make such 'contracts' with hunters illegal. Tourism for the more well-adjusted of us is big money for African nations: we want to go and look, gawk, snap photos, see their habitat, see how they live. And if they are killed off (see below), there is nothing left to see.

Killing them just isn't on my radar.

Hunters need to find some robot targets, or worse maybe hunt themselves.

I hope the other Cecil's out there are allowed to live out a decent life.


"Sadly, lions aren't the only imperiled species hunted for sport.
Americans continue to kill rhinos, leopards, elephants, polar bears,
giraffes, leopards and a variety of other animals for gruesome mementos,
collecting heads as if they were merit badges. Perhaps the most
perverse part about this is that the rarer and more endangered these
species become, the more valuable they are to trophy hunters, as
evidenced by the $50,000 price tag of this hunt and the even more
egregious $350,000 permit auctioned off earlier this year by a member of the Dallas Safari Club to kill a critically endangered Namibian black rhino."

I'm in a good mood, but honestly the endangered species killing makes me furious. I'll save the foul language, but needless to say hunters interested in killing an endangered species is a most short-sighted, awful and soulless sort. Small-minded, greedy, and internally desperate and completely void of the connectedness and beauty of life.




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Sunset, Venice 12/20/2012

Sunset, Venice 12/20/2012
I've been thinking some about the Winter Solstice, the Mayan end of the 30,000-year-cycle on 12/21/12.

What if in fact the world did end? Even though this probably will not happen, to live consciously it is honest for us to take a bit of an inventory.

Am I happy with how I've lived my life? (Yesterday, I thought mostly yes, with some areas for improvement, as below.) Are there changes I would make?
Would I have tried to forgive those that were hostile or disappointing to me?
Would I spend more time with those I loved the most, telling them that, feeling that more?
Would I be happier, grateful for what I have, what I've experienced, the joy, the beauty in this world?

Maybe the answer is yes to all of the above.
So this time can serve as a point of rebirth for all of us. If we think about it.

Because somewhere along the line I realized I think maybe mankind deserves it. !
The way we are killing each other, killing the planet.
How selfish we are, and snotty to those around us. Petty, competitive. Why is this? Do we have to behave this way? (I say no, it greatly detracts and misdirects energy from the full-time celebration in which we could engage, the great multi-cultural, multi-rhythmic dance we can sustain here.)

Maybe God or the Great Universe is fed up, and will pull the rug out from under us.
Don't think I can say we could blame Him/Her/It.

But it probably won't happen. (Probably not! This time.)

Still we are finite on this ride.

It is a time to think, am I happy with how I've lived my life?
Hopefully most of us can say yes.

For the part of us that have a little worry, a little sadness....
This is the time to be present.
This is the time to be the person you want to be, that can die at peace, that can hope to every day be able to look yourself and the Universe in the eye and say, how beautiful, smiling, and thank you. Let's do that.

Antidotes to Violence, a.k.a., Take Charge of Where Your Head's At - here

Tell Congress to Strengthen Gun Control Laws NOW - here

Good News & Brain Food News -
Christians & Muslims Gather, for Peace here
Good News - Top RIO+20 Summit Posts here
The 'Busy' Trap - NYTimes.com
here