By Greg R. Lawson, Director of Communications
A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog that asked what kind of social impacts the loss of hunting would have on America.
In what was a bit of good fortune, Dave Golowenski, the outdoor writer for the Columbus Dispatch - U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance’s HQ’s local paper- penned a story on Valentine’s Day along the same lines. The story is a brief review of a book by the well regarded conservationist and behavioral scientist Randall L. Eaton, From Boys to Men of Heart: Hunting as Rite of Passage.
According to Golowenski, the main theme of the book is that hunting societies in the past were able to clearly define the path that boys were to take to change from youth to adulthood. The book asserts that hunting helps develop compassion by showing young people the mysteries of life and death and the interdependence of all types of creatures on earth.
The book raises profound questions about what it means to be a sportsman and to be a conservationist. It also raises the same kind of questions I referred to last week, especially regarding what kind of nation will America be if it loses all touch with its outdoor traditions?
If even just part of what Mr. Eaton suggests is true, then hunting has played an indispensable role in teaching the youth of past generations how interconnected we are to nature and its assortment of creatures. A loss of that connection could well harm conservation by making it a foreign concept where the next generation no longer has any hands on experience to draw on in motivating them to be stewards of our wildlife.