Is democracy like fishing?

Several decades or so ago we were much more active in a local chapter of a cold water habitat conservation organization, attending annual banquets and serving for a couple of years or so as the editor of the newsletter. One of the mementos from those days can be seen in the slightly out of focus photo below, of a framed broadside acquired at a banquet's silent auction. It reads:

the charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable,

a perpetual series of occasions for hope

the charm of fishing

Photo by J. Harrington

Fifty-seven years ago today, an event occurred that caused us to lose hope for quite some time. We've lost even more hope during the last four years. And yet, during the past two generations we've seen both some progress made and some ground lost in our efforts to live in a better, kinder, more sustainable and hopeful world. We continue to hope despite the fact that in the very recent past our country has failed to meet, and even rejected, our obligations to ameliorate climate change's causes and effects.

some lures of fishing

Photo by J. Harrington

As we exercised a fishing avocation, we've caught some fish and lost a few. Over the course of the years, we've observed that we have never caught a wild trout while sitting on our duff in the living room. Democracy, likewise, is not a spectator sport. Participation can take many forms but, at a minimum, requires us to get off our duffs and vote for those who we believe will not just make things better for us but will make the country better for all of us. That doesn't mean we all get to get the largest flat-screen tv at the lowest price. Food security, homes, healthy neighborhoods rank ahead of the passive consumption of entertainment.

This week we are thankful that we have an opportunity to try again to better govern ourselves while protecting the air, land, water and wildlife on which our continued existence depends. With more effort and better judgement, we may have an opportunity to diminish and eventually eliminate the current pandemic. If we really work at it, we can minimize opportunities for a repeat performance by a new epizootic in the foreseeable future. Those goals are elusive but attainable, if we learn how to work together to ensure the planet which produced us can continue to support us. Let's start by being sure to wear a mask and keep our distance. No angler we know likes it if someone crowds the pool they're fishing.

Fishing, His Birthday

By Michael Sowder

With adams, caddis, tricos, light cahills, 

blue-wing olives, royal coachmen, chartreuse trudes, 

green drakes, blue duns, black gnats, Nancy quills, 

Joe’s hoppers, yellow humpies, purple chutes, 

prince nymphs, pheasant tails, Eileen’s hare’s ears, 

telicos, flashbacks, Jennifer’s muddlers, 

Frank bugs, sow bugs, zug bugs, autumn splendors, 

woolly worms, black buggers, Kay’s gold zuddlers, 

clippers, tippet, floatant, spools of leader, 

tin shot, lead shot, hemostats, needle nose, 

rod, reel, vest, net, boots, cap, shades and waders, 

gortex shell and one bent Macanudo— 

I wade in a swirl of May-colored water, 

cast a fine gray quill, the last tie of my father.

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