I understand the "spirit" of what Ted is trying to say. (No pun intended) But the one thing that stands out in my mind is this. The othergroups that Ted mentions, the police officers,the priests, the teachers,etc are socially established positions and activities held in all of our communities and are respected by the community as a whole. Like Ted said there are bad apples in every profession and recreational pursuit but I think the idea of hunting has not been socially accepted nor cast out. A vast majority of the American public is still on the fence about the issue. The stance Ted is taking is noble, strong, and confident however it could back fire if we aren't careful.

Many of the reasons for Americans being on the fence about hunting is the "unethical" stories that they hear. To counter that they need to hear that we, as a hunting fraternity, are very concerned about being ethical. Then and only then will we convince them that we are in fact ethical. They need to be overwhelmed with our "ethicalness" if you will, to drown out thejunk the media conjurs up.

Whether we like it or not our hunting future is a political battle. Many hunters, myself included, do not like politics or the game politicians play. However if we want to win the game we have to know how to play the game. And since our hunting future will be determined on the political battlefield then many of our hunting shows, messages, and printed articles may sound likewe are campaigning. They sound like that because we are. We are campaigning to convince the American public that they can feel safe with hunters in the woods. We are campaigning to convince the American public that we are concerned with a quick and clean harvest of the animals we hunt. That we do not take pleasure in killing an animal just to see something die andthat we eat what we harvest. That we are conservationists as well as hunters who care about the natural world. That hunting is very healthy for the species we hunt and for their future when managed properly. That we believe poaching is wrong and we believe in obeying all laws all the time. I read on one websitewhere hunters were referred to as "Fudds" as in Elmer Fudd. Is this what we want the public to continue to think about us? We are still considered "Rednecks" and "beer drinking bafoons with guns" by many in our own communities. Nothing could be further from the truth and that's the message we are trying to get out.

The hunting community was scrutinized long before we started talking about ethics. Talking about ethics is a response to the scrutiny, not the other way around. I believe that is why hunting shows and many articles have that "ethical" overtone to it. Once hunting is held with the same acceptance in the American publics eye as a priest, a teacher, even as a person walking into a bank without being considered a threat to others then we can heed Ted's advice as stated above.

Just my 2 cents.