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I really love this time of year. The areas that have a lot of deer hunters seem to always try to accommodate this crazy couple of weeks. Even mommas who are normally more about cleanliness are excited to see their little boy or girl come home with a little blood on them from a successful morning. I have heard of places where school is closed during the first week of rifle season and I have personally witnessed every hotel room in a Days Inn in Kentucky being occupied with hunters. I can still picture the parking lot full of trucks, trailers, four wheelers, and deer. The weirdest thing however was watching hunter after hunter waltz throughout the lobby and down the halls with their rifle in tow and garnished with blaze orange. Think with me just a second though………. Can you imagine if 6 months prior to that day a couple from, let’s say, Hartford Connecticut decided they were going to be coming through Kentucky and would need to stay overnight. By chance, they booked this Days Inn on the same weekend of the opening day of rifle season. Now imagine the man getting up on a Saturday morning, walking down to the lobby in his fuzzy house shoes to get a newspaper and a cup of coffee, and happening upon every man and woman dressed in camo and with gun in hand. (I laugh as I write) That guy would run up to his room, lock the door, close the curtains, hide his wife, and order room service until all of the “barbarians” left. He would then get into his hybrid and drive just as fast as he could to a much safer place – maybe to downtown Chicago or Detroit.
The truth is, I appreciate those who to try to accommodate us during this time. I also appreciate those who tolerate us as well, in the true sense of the word. I just wished that others understood tolerance in other areas of living as well. In fact, I’m just about sick of somebody telling me, with a voice that’s barely broken puberty, that I’m intolerant! Now let’s have a little classroom time together…….. Think about it. By definition, to tolerate something or someone means that I don’t agree with that to which I am tolerating. (this seems so simple to me) I can still be friends with a person and not agree with whatever it is that I might not agree with. But toleration, again by definition, does not mean that I give up my beliefs and espouse theirs! And yet that is what most individuals and groups who cry out for tolerance want! I want to make a promise to everybody. I am willing to tolerate anyone but I am unwilling to give up my beliefs until you convince me that my beliefs are wrong. And if I don’t like you, it’s not because I’m intolerant. It’s probably because you’re a jerk and I don’t like jerks no matter what they believe.
Now I’m going huntin’!
Gary Miller
