Step 59 Part F: Speak for Wolves

And now for the main event--Speak for Wolves. This three-day rally was what brought mom and me out west and was very informative. They had special screenings of documentaires, activitists (picture 1 is Bret Haverstick, the man who put together this amazing gathering) and scientists presenting data to support the continued protection of wolves as well as other animals found in the area, authors, interpretive dancers, music (picture 2 is GoodShield Aguilar--check him out, his music is great!), and, to quote Jimmy St. Goddard of the Blackfeet Indian Tribe himself, "a crazy Indian" (see him in picture 3).

It was crazy how passionate everyone was. Crazy in a good way, yes--they provided some solid evidence and had some great stories--but also... almost too crazy. I guess sometimes you've got to get like that when you're really passionate about something. But... there was a rancher there that got a hold of the microphone and started telling his opinions. He wasn't being rude (though maybe he was monopolizing the microphone), but I did start feeling the same scared way I did when that man confronted mom and me is North Dakota. I wasn't afraid of the rancher, though. I was afraid of the wolf people. They were not going to listen to him, and they made that clear. Maybe he really was a jerk that didn't deserve to be listened to (I'd heard rumors that he'd been making threats), but to see how angry the rally people got--they were only slightly less vicious than the man from ND (to their major credit, I never heard one of them threaten the rancher).

I don't want wolves to be killed anymore than the super enthusiastic activists--in an ideal world, humans would just back off and let nature do what it needs to do. But we don't live in an ideal world. We live in a world of compromise. And it makes me sad that more people don't accept this. They just keep fighting and fighting for what they want, and the other side fights back, and nothing gets accomplished. If you compromise, at least you're getting something done. Even the smallest thing now can lead to bigger changes down the road.

One of my favorite speakers, Mike Mease from the Buffalo Field Campaign (pictured 4th), said "Individually we're fingers. Together we make a fist." I'm pretty sure he was leaning more towards the idea that all environmentalists should come together regardless of their different areas of expertise, but I like to think that it could work with opposing sides as well. Maybe I'm just too opptimistic. Or naive. I know I don't have near the doe-eyed hopefulness that I used to have before college and before this rally, but if the world is going to have so many extreme people, it can't hurt to have another in-the-middle girl.