I will not participate in this obstructionist war that will only further sympathy for tribal fishing interests. Until we can change the narrative of Cowboys vs Indians, you might as well wear hoods and robes.
Oh boy. If you have that impression then you have not been paying attention. This is NOT about, nor has it ever been about the "Indian's". It's about the lack of transparency and about WDFW and the Co-managers conducting meetings that result in laws that impact all of us and doing so behind locked doors.
It doesn't matter one bit WHO is preventing transparency, it's ALL ABOUT there is NO TRANSPARENCY. Making it into some sort of "racist" slant by saying something as inflammatory as "you might as well wear hoods" just shows how uninformed you are. Oh, by the way, just a note to you....I'm half native american.
There are informed, educated sportsmen who understand what the struggle is about. We don't need, nor want anyone with "slanted" conceptions as to what is at stake and what the issue is. Thank you for not participating.
Your welcome sir and thank you for continued efforts to help sportsfishermen.
Obviously I am referring to the public perception to obstructing the NOF meetings. We need to start winning the public relations battle and sportsmen alone cannot do that. The public needs to understand what we are fighting for and we must have a broader coalition to achieve any success.
I am not saying give up the fight to make NOF public. The commission just denied your petition. It was not going to force open meetings, even if successful.
It seemed like the perfect time to switch efforts on to who would be our next WDFW director. The commission is asking for input. I expected to be much debate on who should lead wdfw. Instead silence. Very similar to when I asked what we should change with PSCHMP. People willing to protest, but not one person has come forward with a specific change.
As to being “slanted” as you call it, yes I am slanted because my Filipino wife immigrated to this country thinking it is the land of the free. They didn’t tell her that she would not have the same rights of 1% of the population determined by blood. This is the message we need to get out. We need the aclu and all equal rights organizations on our side. Look at the Atlantic Salmon issue. Get environmentalists on your side and things happen fast. Think bigger.
There is no Ark of the covenant in the NOF meetings box. What you will find is a turd sandwich. We should not ignore everything else just to view it.
Jake, I'm impressed! You are spot on in a lot of your points. The fight for better fisheries is indeed, multifaceted and very political. However, that is not a reason to give up, or to become unfocused. We have been laser focused on transparency, and primarily in the North of Falcon. There are a million other things wrong but this is our fight. What you refer to as a "turd sandwich" must be important enough to hide that both WDFW and the NWIFC have spent a lot of energy keeping is hidden. We are fully aware that a simple picket line will not win the fight. Especially since we are not only fighting the transparency issue, but also the resistance to challenge a culture of appeasement within the Department. However, having this in the paper, or on the nightly news may just reach a few more people who will stand up and speak out.
What's frustrating is, although we have over 5000 people signed on the petition, and are reaching thousands with our facebook and twitter feeds, when it's time to put the rubber to the road, it's crickets. Sure, not everyone can take off work, or find a babysitter or whatever else is too important, but we should have hundreds of people committing to show.
Yes, we need to sway public opinion. One way to do that is to get the truth into their living rooms. Getting the media's attention so we have a platform is one way to do that. However, we need to have the people support this by execution rather than speech.
I take back my words Jake, we would appreciate your participation if you and your wife feel open government is fundamental to a fair and equitable seat at the fishery management table. Abusing rights based on culture is wrong. Doesn't matter who does it. But please, remember, this has nothing to do with race and has everything to do with fairness and democracy.
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