Joel Kretz caught outright lying in the above statement after WDFW reported it was on Public Lands.
Its good to see that finally others are not afraid of Washington States Elected Officials… Joel Kretz and Donald Dashiell need to go… Joel Kretz outright lied, Dashiell wrote a letter complaining they werent killing fast enough…. Thank you Brandon Nobles for standing up to this “Old West Rancher Mentality” that truly our elected officials should be removed from office for having!!
(By Brandon Nobles/ Brandon is a graduate of the University of Washington with a degree in English and Humanities. He is a current online teacher and is the Research Coordinator for the 7th LD Democratic Central Committee.)
Well, it happened again. A couple weeks back, Fish and Wildlife confirmed that a calf was killed and partially eaten by the Sherman Wolf Pack. It did not take long for Facebook to go abuzz and local politicians taking advantage of the situation to stir up their constituents. Seventh Legislative District Republican Representative Joel Kretz declared it was going to “get western.” Par for the course, many locals joined in this Gaston-esque mob rallying over a creature that affects only a tiny fraction of a percentage of the 7th LD’s population. The wolf since the creation of the Wolf Recovery Program has been transformed into a political football to toss about amongst local politicians to secure a limited and distracting political discourse that covers and masks the fact that this region continues to sink economically with a heroin-fueled socially pathological residue as a replacement. Only when our local politicians seek out to serve all of their constituents and abandon these little political sideshows (or be replaced with those who are more apt to serve their district) will NE Washington ever be able to put on the brakes before going off the cliff that this region is heading.
The wolf issue as a political football and bread-and-circuses distraction is evidenced by none other than the fact that livestock that die from natural causes, or are killed by various other predators are never graced with such focus and attention from our local lawmakers. Distraction in terms of fear and hatred has always been an effective GOP tool, be it nationally (Muslims, Mexicans, etc.) or at our local level with wolves or evil Seattle-ite commie coastals. The narrative goes that the elitist denizens of the Puget Sound are hell-bent (through the Wolf Recovery Plan and apparently with politically active coastal transplants like myself) to destroy the frontier ranching and logging way of life in the region, and in turn create a over-taxed gentrified wildlife refuge with a Starbucks on every corner (better than taco trucks I suppose…). Various other forms of Eastern Washington political GOP discourses follow this reasoning with the political fear-factor variable of the wolf being switched out for some other dastardly foe, be it the demolition of the salmon destroying and antiquated Snake River Dams in Southeast Washington, or the seeming scourge of illegal migrant laborers in Central Washington (where paradoxically the ones complaining about these people are the same ranchers and farmers who hire them…).
This leads to the subject we must consider and acknowledge to ourselves no matter how unpopular, that NE Washington still considers itself culturally to be a local economy based on ranching, logging and mining when nothing could be further from the truth. Depending on which labor statistics one uses, the extraction and agricultural industries combined make up about 3-4% of the labor market. In contrast, government employees (consisting of the National Forest Service, Homeland Security, BLM, teachers, police officers, local governments, firefighters, etc.) make up over half of the same market. This is no way trying to disparage ranchers, loggers, and the like, but it does seem disconcerting that talk of wolves, wetland easements, and other exclusive issues that affect only a small fraction of our population and economy are primarily the only issues that are focused on in this region’s political arena.
This inherent exclusivity is effectively leading to the destruction of one of the most beautiful places of Washington by systematically ignoring critical problems that affect the population as a whole, not just a small group of specific interests: a heroin and opioid pain pill epidemic, crumbling infrastructure, summer wildfires that are only going to get worse in the age of climate change, underfunded law enforcement agencies, heavy property crime, draconian local farming regulations, demographic collapse with youth routinely leaving the area, massive unemployment, etc. And no, an improbable and unlikely dream of a revamped extraction industry will not cure unemployment or any of the ills mentioned above. What could cure them is the diligent work of our legislators and local politicians, who have so far in their actions in addressing the real problems of this region have been trials in mediocrity if not outright sticking-one’s-head-in-the-sand on these issues. The wolves (whether we like it or not) are here to stay, and our politicians need to understand that hiding behind wolf-kills to secure election after election will no longer be tolerated. We must voice our demands that they need to represent ALL of their constituents and focus on issues that affect the lives of ALL of their constituents on a daily basis. If they refuse to do this, then we need to do some cleaning out of the house for politicians who will do the job that they were elected to do.
Source: From the Left Bank: Don’t cry wolf in Eastern Washington – The Independent
Comments
Hopefully this note will help wolf, predator, and wildlife advocates a little.
Everybody knows that when we first experience threat, stress, violent or unfriendly confrontation, our minds, emotions, and bodies want to jump into action. Even psychologists have measured this for over a hundred years.
What they found, and the finding has never changed, is that a certain amount of arousal is good for promoting relevant thinking and action, but too much causes us to do, say, and focus in ways that aren’t wise. We get increasingly stupid.
Matter of fact, the natural phenomenon is probably the one from which the story from which Twowolves got his name, is about.
Notice that whenever we think about something that doesn’t seem to be changing or ending, we feel frustrated, and our anger can increase.Studying stuff like psychology, brains, and the way we animals respond to life, for me included exploring whatever ways we might overcome our responses when they’re inappropriate.
There’s a people called by others, the Yurok – the “Downriver People,” who understood that in a community, even those who killed another pretty much always did so from a mutual buildup of rage. So they didn’t focus on punishment, bur only on restitution this kept the community friendly and whole, if more careful than many. This whole attitude of anonymous partisan politics we are seeing, whether over those who just want to kill wolves, or deny the value of any other, departs pretty strongly from the traditional ways of upbringing and what’s expected from adults in the original peoples of North America.
There’s also a problem which I began calling “unrelieved social pressure” arising from recognition of the value of seeking solitude and understanding. This particular Way has been translated as “prayer”, vision quest” and among the Dnie’ – Navajo – they taught both visiting a medicine person to schedule some song and interaction called “The Beauty Way”. The focused concepts learned would also be used privately whenever one has to travel alone.
I can’t do justice to the practices I mention , but just want to alert you to the fact that because they arose from the experience of life, including the experience of ALL life, you have them inherent, and it only takes a litle discipline, like running, patient attention to anywhere you are at any moment.
The Dine’ also have some other relevant rituals for healing discord. It’s all about our harmony with All that exists, they know, and the difficult-to-learn ceremony, The Night Way, is a way they really must work at, both to develop memory, and stick with remembering what’s important.
The Beauty Way chants are a lot like methods many other peoples taught for individuals to say what’s important when far from the families they love.
Hearing the poems recited – the thing about owning one’s songs, as the only sacred possession that has occurred from Andino people into the far North has to do with creating what’s best for you, as well as recognizing that all that exists is also composed of others just like you, whether they are humans, big bears, shrews small as your little finger, giant redwoods shading right here, or a blade of grass.
Without saying so, we learn through this that we are at home in the world, and all others are our relatives.
The Wolf I knew best seemed always to know that. He might have been watching me when we first met skunk or rattlesnake, but as far as I could tell, he caught signals right the first time (his life was pretty locked up before he made his series of escapes to me).
My years with the Wolf, he taught by shrugging off and learning from everything, from fighting to allowing arousal to just naturally fade, from his immense memory to his constant alertness to every stimulus. His fierce and comfortable attention, self-assurance to clear questioning, his carefulness in contingent prediction, appropriate levels of play to all (the wolf has some inbuilt recognitions of what is prey, but even that is also contingent on mood and need, but here we’re talking about how to create harmony and tolerance, so that it can grow in others toward wolf), all instruct.
One of my studies is epigenetic mechanism – the ways and persistence of how experience is formed, and as that science travels along, what ways in which the things that are traumatic can be changed. I mention traditional Ways of dealing with it to you, so that more of your senses will inform you when it’s necessary to create harmony between those who believe that going out and killing whatever bothers them, and the agile Ways of wiser beings.
When the power to just kill with impunity is taken, or even threatened, bullets and poison get sprayed around.
That’s somebody else’s heritage, and it never can last.
We’ve seen a lot of ending-mistakes by those who could not, would not learn, and you can’t really save from themselves anyone who doesn’t want to learn, but I’m here for wolf and the quick.
There are some ranchers who have compassion and understanding that other beings are really a lot like ourselves. There’s a lot of people who learned to get the gun off the rack first. Even a grandfather had a row of traps, and used to strike his cattle in anger.
Power corrupts, and the only answer is agility. Guess who taught me that . . .