All,

Well Obama is in! The election is over! I am so glad that idiot Bush is gone. What an embarrassment that guy was. From a herp industry perspective here is what concerns me. Even though Obama leans left, he, hopefully, will keep moving towards the middle. He is intelligent and the middle is where fairness, inclusion and intellect lie. Radical left or right views are ignorant and hateful. Although his policies and platforms are on target in the big picture, in my opinion, he still has some negatives. And those negatives lie with his left leaning values as Ernie eluded to in the post below. Most importantly for us is the fact that most academics and AR groups are Obama supporters. So now is the time, more than ever, we need to get organized and protect our rights. This is why we need to be ready to fight to keep things in the middle. The inclusive and fair middle. So the “agenda” got their candidate what are they going to do now? What are we going to do? We need to be ready.

In addition, there are positives with a left leaner in that we will see more environmental protection and land conservation which we should all want for the herps. What we don’t want is “agenda,” banning, and overzealousness. We also want to be heard and have our opinion included in the decision making process. This favors the left who supports public input, although, many radical, egotistical and elitist academic herpers/agency biologists haven’t been given that memo.

This is an opportunity for us because some new and burning issues maybe brought to the table. The issues that concern us may gain more attention. We have been under attack for a number of years and we have plenty to work on without this new situation, however, Obama was the best choice for all we face as a nation in my opinion so it is worth it. USARK has been formed but we don’t know if they will support the entire industry. If they support both the commercial and recreational side of the herp industry we will have everyone under one umbrella. This would be awesome. PARC is going to reach out to the private sector which also gives us an opportunity. More to come on that including the possibility of drafting a Memorandum Of Understanding.

So all in all I think Obama was the correct choice for the country, however, he does have his negatives and those negatives could directly affect our industry. We have opportunities and we need to take advantage of them. We also need to be organized and be ready to fight for our agenda whoever is in power.

FYI: I will not debate whether Obama was the correct choice or not. That argument is moot at this point. The herp industry is full of Democrats, Republicans and Independents and we all need to band together and fight for our rights as private herpers and businesses. We need to put our energy into organizing, forming partnerships, advancing our cause and protecting our rights and privileges.

Welkerii
El Paso, TX

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