In my own neighborhood, pets, domestic and wild ungulates are not offered up to the "large predator gods." If wildlife is part of what God charged people with dominion over in the Book of Genesis, He does not say for us to exercise speciesism (favoring one of the species over another). We are charged with dominion.
He expects us to be the real environmentalists. That means, in my studied opinion, that we are charged with being the source of real, actual balance.
When it's a time of drought, we are to provide water (to our families, pets, livestock, and wildlife). In time of famine, we are to provide food (to our families, pets, livestock, and wildlife).
In time of fire, we are to provide safety and shelter (read: we are to do what's right by the land and all that grows upon it, whether "native" or not, and to harvest timber and other crops and squelch rampant fire hazard growth) for our families, pets, livestock, and wildlife.
In time of flood, we are to provide dry shelter and safety for our families, pets, livestock, and wildlife.
In time of spiritual dearth, we are to provide faith so that our families, pets, livestock, and wildlife know we still hold true to the charge we have been given: dominion.
In these times of language deception, "the gods of the copybook headings" are elbowing one another for center stage. Many people, ill-equipped to understand what is happening, do not see in the clever choreographing of words they learned to trust, a Trojan horse. Taught to respect words that once meant only certain things -- but have since been kidnapped and held hostage in order that the shufflers and redefiners would come to hold sway o'er all -- most folks don't know exactly what is wrong. They have the gut feeling that something is wrong.
After almost a decade immersed in definitions as they are spewed from the redefinition machine, one thing emerges with crystal clarity: The emperor has no clothes.
It's time many more good folks clear their throats and say so!
Smithson's website is www.propertyrightsresearch.org
