I’m was a little conflicted. I grew up a ‘city’ kid. Wise in the ways of retail shopping, automobile shedding, and Hugo Boss - interspersed with good shoes and eating regularly at fast food joints while working at the ‘mall’.
20 years later, I’m an ardent fly-fisher who loves the outdoors, driving a Jeep - not a rice car, and have just completed hunter training and am a licenced hunter.
Today - as the snow fell, I looked outside and thought to myself ‘White tails will be hopping today. Wonder if I should get a tag and fill our freezer for the year?’.
Next week I’m taking my CFSC (Canadian firearms safety course) to complete my hunter trifecta (Fish, Guns and Deer) and at some moment today - I actually thought I should check my neck for the red.
But am I really turning into a redneck? Can someone hunt, fish and shoot - but still not be a redneck? I say yes.
I’m concerned with the state of our wildlife. I’m concerned about habitat changes, and I’m concerned with the quality of our flowing water. I worry about the overpopulation of White tails, and the frequency with which people are being killed or injured on the roads as a result.
As a new hunter - I’m not from the old guard of ‘I’ve been shootin’ em since I wuz 5.’ I come from the newly educated, conservation focused camp. I eat what I shoot or catch, don’t shoot indiscriminantly, and enjoy seeing the critter get away when I miss.
Sure - I’ve got camoflaged stuff now. Yes - I know how to load and ‘unload’ a 12 guage; and yes - I can field dress a grouse. But these things are not red-neck… These are skills.
Hunters catch a bad ‘rep from the non-hunting and anti-hunting world. We’re “gunning down helpless animals” is something I’ve heard a few times now. “Killing one of gods creatures - an innocent animal that has done nothing wrong…” and “unfairly using a gun instead of catching it with my hands.” I can only reply that we are higher order life forms. Spear or gun - it’s technology that the lower life forms don’t have. Lucky man.
The ability to harvest and prepare your own food is a basic survival technique lost on most modern first world societies. We have taken wild animals and made them pets, we’ve lost sight of our own backyard. Ask any grade 6 student to describe the difference between a black bear and a grizzly bear - or the difference between a wolf and a coyote - and you’ll likely see stunned silence. In spite of this - all 4 walk the streets of Whitecourt on occasion - and regularly in Fox Creek. Understanding the nature of our world includes understanding it’s inhabitants and how they fit into the balance of things.
What many anti-hunting folks don’t understand is that while there is little sport to pointing a shotgun at a stationary target, there is less sport in allowing the surplus population of grouse or pheasant to waste over winter. Wild populations are subject to the carrying capacity of a habitat - the raw number of animals that the territory can provide for. Winter is the worst time for this capacity, and the numbers of animals early in the season and into the fall are almost always in excess of the capacity during lean winters. Hunting thins the population (from the older end of the scale) and accounts for only a small percentage of the population losses.
These animals that we hunt are animals that have been traditionally hunted - for hundreds if not thousands of years. Those anti-hunting christians who preach the ‘gods creatures’ argument for banning hunting forget that 100 years ago - their pastors would have been trapping and killing the same animals for feasts - and thanking god during grace for providing the bounty.
In that regard - I thank god - or my version of god - anyway. I thank that animal; squirrel, grouse or trout. I thank my country - for valuing wildlife enough to ensure that I can partake in it’s management.
I think my neck is fine.
It’s a slight shade of pink… no worries.
Well, maybe a bit red for sure, I abhor guns, hate the f’n things in fact. And yes, I mastered “small arms familiarization” as the military called it. Your philosophies and mine differ in this regard but I can respect yours. Just be careful with those things, they are designed with only one purpose in mind and can’t differentiate between creatures walking on four legs or two.
So your argument is that redneckism is a state of mind? Although you have articulately argued the justification for slaughtering animals…colouring it any other way doesn’t change the fact that you are still choosing to take a life.
Does choosing to take a life automatically make you a redneck? I am sure that there are many self-proclaimed rednecks out there that have never hunted, trapped, or fished a thing.
So…I don’t think you have truly embraced the redneck mantra - but I wonder where the motivation comes from to kill things.
I’m sorry, but killing things is just never ok for me. Not when you consider where we live, what food is available to us (although don’t get me started on the unethical treatment of farm animals that are unlucky enough to be raised as food sources for us), and recognizing how delicate our eco-system is. The idea of driving into some animals natural habitat, loading a gun, and picking off creatures at random (because they are *so* overpopulated) is a little bit appalling to me.
Here is your redneck checklist:
Are you caucasion?
Are you male?
Is your sexual orientaion heterosexual?
Do you drink cheap beer and/or Jack Daniels?
Do you have a beer belly?
Are you distrustful of anyone “not like you”?
Are you distrustful of your government?
Do you live in trailer?
Do you own a beat up pick-up truck?
Does your vehicle have a gun rack in it?
Do you wear sleeveless shirts?
Do you have a mullet or sideburns (or both)?
Do you have bad teeth (and I don’t mean a lot of cavities)?
Do you watch NASCAR, pro wrestling, and/or monster truck rallies?
Do you hunt?
Do you shoot at/collect road signs and lights?
Do you have junked cars, car parts, and/or large appliances on your lawn?
Do you prefer to listen to Country music or Southern rock bands like Lynyrd Skynard?
I’d say if you answer yes to 5 of these or less, you’re safe; more than 5 and you’re well on your way to earning that big ol trucker hat and wifebeater; more than 10…o noes you need an intervention!
Whew I only scored 4. My response will take more space than this comment - so watch for a post.
And no - I have no intention of arguing, just offering a better understanding of the contrary position.
Hugs!
Re: Red-neck check list…..damn, I DO NOT qualify.
PS - I thought the first few questions were racist, sexist, and disgusting, and IMHO - don’t contribute to the scoring in any meaningful way.
Quote: “PS - I thought the first few questions were racist, sexist, and disgusting, and IMHO - don’t contribute to the scoring in any meaningful way.”
I respectfully disagree…the term “redneck” is in itself judgemental and, if not racist (although the term is used almost exclusively on caucasians), then certainly a decisive descriptor on a persons social standing. Are there female rednecks? Sure…but they are usually also described using other colourful adjectives, and are only ultimately dubbed rednecks through the association of their male counterparts.
Anyhoo…I didn’t make up the stereotype, I just listed what the sterotype entails. Although you may have found the questions offensive, they are legitimate. Here was the source of my redneck definition: http://bsornot.whipnet.net/redneck/redneck.defined.html