[Tweeters] LET'S NOT BREAK UP OVER THIS!

[Ed Newbold via Tweeters]

Hi all,

 

Can we enjoy the wonderful intellectuality and energy of this?  Can we see brilliance in the opinions wedisagree with, and erudition and a magnificent opus of work from people on bothsides of this debate?

That last includes you, Hal, who I seem to be going againsthere, and know my hat is off to you for all you have done. But I don’t see puttinga lid on all expression and passion by fiat as being good in this or very manysituations.
I also have a dog in this fight. I think there are unspokenassumptions that both sides may tacitly accept as true but which are actuallyin play. Economists, at least those ofthe Austrian persuasion, see their discipline as the study of things that aren’tapparent to the eye. That new Sports Stadium will certainly be good for theeconomy, right? But is that statement true?  Does the time spent on name changes really meanthere will be less time spent watching or saving Birds? Will the public spendmore or less time actually getting to know Steller if his name is not on the WesternBlue Jay?  (I'm against that name change). Would a public controversyhurt the image of birders and consequently, birds? We don’t know these things,but we must not assume the “common-sense” position that assumes there will be lesstime and that the controversy would be damaging, or that Steller will be forgotten, that those things are true or even knowable. I personally believe a robustcontroversy in birding that spills outinto the public domain could be just what the Doctor ordered to break thewidespread perception that it would be embarrassing to call oneself a birder and that birding is not an acceptable pastime the way somethinglike watching Football is. (I encounterthis perception at my store all the time.)
I may have tipped my hand a little bit but I am not a partisan. I love all of you folks! Thanks to everyone who chimedin!  We don’t need to break up over this!
 

Thanks all,

 

Ed Newbold 




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