The Other Side of the Story

Sean Hannity has been flogging a story out of my State, California, for a while now. He's taken up with and for the farmers in the San Joaquin Valley whose land is waterless by government fiat, (and a drought).

Hating the gummint as much as most of us do, it's easy to take up the banner and shout with the crowd that the radicals are sacrificing the farmers, the salt of the earth...and probably Republicans...for the 2-inch smelt....that Hannity keeps insisting is the problem.

He's making it a battle to the death between humans and minnows.

But that's not the whole story.

On his on-location show last week with a dramatic backdrop of hundreds of valley workers with their signs (goofing off and laughing and having a great time from all indications), and depressing footage of the parched land...and references to the 1930's dust bowl...

...he waxed eloquent against the hard-hearted gummint that could choose a "2-inch fish" over hardworking, salt-of-the-earth, reduced-to-soup-lines, farmers.

But he also insultingly shouted down a guest (that presumably he invited) who tried to explain the fishermen's point of view, and that the "2-inch-fish" wasn't really the central issue, but the health of the delta, the estuary and the salmon.

Now, when you talk about salmon...it is not just the salmon FISH...but the salmon INDUSTRY, which employs thousands of people involved in process of plucking a salmon out of the ocean...and getting it served, ready to eat onto your plate.

And they are not any more expendable than the farmers - nor should they be forgotten in this story.

So...regardless of Sean Hannity's current passion about the farmers, and his shameless dismissal of the alternate view, here's the other side of the story:

Protect Endangered Fish, Save the Fishermen.

Today a group called the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) is planning to present a petition urging the government to eliminate environmental protections for salmon and other endangered fish in order to pump more water from the threatened Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ecosystem as the solution to our central valley water crisis. Whoa!

Let me start off by saying that this is NOT about a “worthless 2 inch minnow,” or an “inconsequential little worm," as some have described the Delta smelt –- it is about salmon! Protecting the delta smelt also helps protect salmon. Fishermen know that what’s good for the smelt is good for salmon and good for the health of the estuary.

I’m a commercial salmon fisherman and sometimes when I say that, people believe that I take folks out on sportfishing excursions, that’s not the case. I go out on my boat and harvest a great public resource for those who don’t have the means or ability to go out there themselves. When I come back to port, I sell these beautiful, sustainably-caught salmon to my neighbors at the farmers’ markets in our area. My commercial fishing permit entrusts me to harvest fish in a sustainable manner because these fish belong to ALL people in our State and we do want to make sure that there will be fish to catch next year, and every year until the end of time.

Everybody concerned about the environment is not wrong - or a Left-Wing Nut Job. And every person who champions human self-interest at the expense of the environment...is not necessarily RIGHT.

The life and health of the estuary, the delta and the salmon, are not the insignificant issues some are trying to make it by sneeringly and repeatedly referring to a "2-inch fish". And if we've learned anything about ecology, it's that a "2-inch fish" can be the key to the success - the life or death - of an entire eco-system.

I know the radical EnviroStasi have hijacked Environmentalism as a club to destroy capitalism, the country, and to establish the secular religion of Earth Worship and a Marxist "paradise". But that does not mean that all environmental concerns are politically motivated or baldly trumped up.

We have to be responsible stewards of the natural world and our fellow creatures. And we have to remember that while we need to resist the envirofascist view that people are a virus on the earth - the problem and a plague - we also have to be sensitive when our thoughtless or greedy actions put entire ecosystems at risk of destruction.

The Gunslinger

Enemy of the Imperial State

Conservative Environmentalist & Diehard Animal Lover*

*The other day...on my commute home, a couple of blocks from my office, I saw a rat (A Rat!) running on the road (a first!) and was horrified at his predicament, and held my breath hoping he'd make it to safety. Unfortunately, he did not. Bummed me out for days. (A Rat!) I'd freak if I found him in my house...but I was really rooting for him to make it across the street unscathed. How can you NOT?)

(As I write this it occurs to me that old Hannity might have spun a little crazy on this story because he's feeling the heat of 'Beck on fire' on his backside.)