My sister who lives in Midland, Texas, called me after reading the previous post about wild boar to say that she personally knows many hunters in West Texas who love to hunt wild boar, that it’s their favorite animal to hunt, and that they do indeed eat the meat and also donate it to food banks. Whew! I am genuinely relieved and happy to hear it. That’s more like the Texas I know. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to ask her in the first place before I went off half-cocked based on a story I read in The Atlantic Monthly (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200911/texas-hog).
Talk about being detached from the source.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how much we live in niches and how little we make the connections that would greatly increase understanding. For instance, the writer and his editors for the Atlantic article either had not read Pollan or had not made the connection between Pollan and the situation in Texas, nor had they talked to enough hunters in West Texas. (Or they simply chose to spin the story the way they did even knowing these factors.) To compound matters, I didn’t think to ask my Texas relatives what they knew about the situation. I just didn’t make the connection. It might also very well be that the sources for the Atlantic article haven’t connected with the hunters my sister knows either. It’s a big state, and maybe all these players don’t know one another. Maybe there are multiple stories, and it just depends on who you talk to.
Here’s to a more complete picture! May we all make the connections that increase understanding and knowledge. And next time, I will ask my sister before I make any sweeping statements about Texas.
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