Would the American hero, Davy Crockett, have sacrificed his life defending the Alamo if he knew his government would someday eliminate his own birth-right to hunt and fish this land he so loved?
Did this great pioneer and outdoorsman see into the future before that fateful battle when he returned from Washington to his beloved home in the wilderness? Is it possible that he was disheartened by Washington politics after his fellow Tennesseans sent him to Congress in 1826? Did he believe that bureaucrats would sell out the rights of those who he was elected to represent – fellow countrymen who believed in a strong America, known around the world as a new land of Freedom, and home of the brave.
If alive today, he would see a different country from the one he gave his blood to defend. He would see hunters and fishermen from coast to coast, border-to-border, losing their jobs. Today’s America has become Land of the Lobbyist and Home of the Special Interest Group.
If Davy Crockett could’ve seen into the future from the Alamo, he would see: Under the ruse of environmental safeguards, regulations would be put in place to bury the commercial and recreational outdoorsmen. Meanwhile, wealthy oil companies will run rough-shod over our government, resulting in the biggest environmental disaster in our country’s history. (A million commercial fishermen couldn’t do the damage that Deepwater Horizon did to Louisiana’s Gulf Coast). The public would be fed propaganda that declares, “Crisis for the world’s natural resources,” and “Doom and gloom for our future,” and unscientific theories would be pandered as fact to support their theories. The reality of back-door politics would serve many special interests for fanatical eco-organizations hellbent on self-preservation. While the country is in the midst of financial melt-down, Congress will spend their valuable time closing a loophole in commercial shark fining, an industry non-existent in America, instead of focusing on the real issues at hand.
As an outdoorsman and fisherman of four decades, I’ve withstood the never-ending claims of “the sky is falling.” I’ve seen my way of life, and the life of millions of Americans, disappear while other countries laugh at American Greed. I think Davy Crockett is turning in his grave.
God bless him and his Tennesseans!