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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial id="role_document"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Very well put, I agree.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Dale</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>-----Original Message-----<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>From:</span></b>
or-roots-admin@sosinet.sos.state.or.us
[mailto:or-roots-admin@sosinet.sos.state.or.us] <b><span style='font-weight:
bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>CKlooster@aol.com<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Thursday, December 08, 2005
1:03 PM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> </span></font><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>or-roots@sosinet.sos.state.or.us</span></font><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'><br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Re: [or-roots] Cougars...</span></font></p>
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style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Among
the bits of wisdom given me by my mother was "Bears are more afraid of you
than you are of them.". My mother had never met an Alaskan bear.
Bears...and I include both black bears and brown (grizzly) bears...are not
afraid of anything. That being the case, nobody in this Yukon
River community goes out of the village proper without a gun. Berry
picking is particularly risky since people and bears are both fond of the berry
patch; when berry picking, most people take a designated gunner to keep watch.
Still, in close to thirty years here, I know of no people in this area injured
by bears or wolves.</span></font></p>
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face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'> </span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>People
in the US seem increasingly to expect a world without danger or
risk...so much so that some people are willing to give up privacy, basic civil
rights and freedom for the illusion of safety and security. We expect our
children to be born healthy and to grow to adulthood; our grandparents had no
such illusions. We expect illness to be curable with antibiotics or other
pharmaceuticals; our grandparents sat anxious vigil with herbs and patent
medicines as the only help for sick relatives. We expect our countryside to be
free of dangerous wild animals and we expect to be old when we die.
I believe that when future generations (assuming there are any) look back
at this time, they will regard it as a time of great naivety. We're
running out of antibiotics effective against resistant pathogens; many of this
generation have immune systems unchallenged by serious virus or bacteria infection.
As recently demonstrated in Great Britain, security cameras can only tell you
who blew up the underground, small consolation to those who were injured or to
the families of those who died. We may shortly participate in a
pandemic...if not the bird flu, then another variant. Our climate is
changing rapidly and with extreme weather results. In short, this is not
now, nor has it ever been a safe world and harboring the assumption of
safety is actually pretty detrimental to our survival.</span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Cougars,
bears, wolves, and humans are all "top of the food chain"
predators. Yet, since the turn of the last century there have been less
than two hundred reported attacks on humans by cougars and wolves.
Contrast that with the more than 30,000 deaths resulting from automobile
accidents each year. I believe that many of the encounters and subsequent
attacks on humans by predators are a result of a lack of human vigilance;
people strolling through the countryside without paying particular attention to
potential danger. I don't regard wild animals as fuzzy would-be pets, but
I would not want to live in a world in which cougars and bears and wolves have
no place. I think the key is vigilance and respect.</span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>And
that's my soap box.</span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Carla</span></font></p>
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