oh deer....

so we've been watching the mentor city council meetings, just to see local residents fight over the deer culling program.  it's a heated debate.

there are a few women (one in particular) who are against the culling.  the one lady shows up every week and is quite vocal about how wrong it is to allow bow hunters to kill the deer.  she demands details in numbers, how many deer are killed, is the meat actually taken to area food pantries and given to the poor.  she sometimes makes wild accusations against council members.  she always tries to speak longer then the allotted time.  sometimes i think she's funny.  sometimes i kind of feel sorry for her. 

there's a house near my gym with signs in front, condemning the deer bow hunting program.  we think it's got to be this lady's house.  i drove by on saturday and tried to get out to take pictures, but the road is too busy.  so on sunday i talked dan into dropping me off in front of the house to take photos, and then to give me time to walk down to another house with a funny "pro deer killing" sign.

when i got out of the car, as dan pulled away, my stomach sunk.  all the signs had been vandalized with orange spray paint.  suddenly the whole debate had taken a turn for the ugly and the illegal.  someone walked onto this person's property and destroyed things.  not just the signs.  they also stomped on some flowers and smashed things.  it made me so sad.  it's one thing to disagree, to debate, to argue.  but this... was just ugly and mean.

i walked away disgusted with people.  i wanted to apologize to the person whose signs were defaced.  as i walked away, i felt like someone was watching me... i looked back into the woods...

a lone deer stood.  it was surreal.  i thought about these humans and their battles.  the people who wanted to save the deer.  the people who consider the deer an enemy to their shrubs and gardens.  or those who consider them game for sports and want to get the biggest buck.  

i also thought about my friend vince at work.  he grew up in PA, in the country, were hunting is sacred, a part of growing up.  his father taught him to hunt, it's how they fed their family and how he still feeds his family.  he doesn't do it to put a head on the mantle, he does it because it's a part of his life, his community and his family.

and in mentor, there are too many deer.  they run into the streets and cause major accidents.  they are scrawny, underfed, covered in ticks and have mange.  so while i am an animal lover, and i enjoy seeing them in my yard, playing under the full moon, i know they are overpopulated and weak.

and i eat meat, so i can't be anti bow hunting.  i just wish we could stop building strip malls and housing developments, and leave some woods for the deer.  and implement some sort of birth control system for the deer population!  find other ways to think the herd.

ethical bow hunting, sure.  but after seeing the vandalized yard, this sign didn't seem as funny as it did to me the day before.

in the end, i go back to my greatest wish in life:  that people learn to play nice.  stop being dicks.  be kind.  be polite.  if someone is being a jerk to you, don't be a jerk back.  maybe they're having a bad day.  try being nice back!

ok, lecture over.  mom & mark, go back to your regular business.