Letters are part of it, Der Ami. "Education," however, must advance on the broadest possible front. Those of us who work at it every day---"it" being changing opinion and providing greater influence with power structures---have a few rules.

One is to keep the dark side close to your chest, to sup and drink with them and be respectful of their notions of protecting their interests however you feel about them. Persuasion not punching in the teeth. There are more of them than us. Use their strengths to overcome, like black belts.

Second, adjust when your strategy is not working. My organization just turned around public participation in a province-wide program from 23 to 90 per cent without a letter, ad or radio spot. Our opponents were a powerful industry and government. Big guys don't have the franchise on brains.

Canada's great Marshall McLuhan hypothesized decades ago that the medium is the message and that we now live in a global village. NRA's good-bad-man with a gun resonates with our hairy-chested but to others it's too much of frontier vigilante justice. Please don't shoot the messenger; I'd ditch it.

This is a a roundabout way of cautioning against pigeon-holing anyone, as some would to our member Homeless Joe. There's a long twisty road to protecting our shooting sports. There's no unanimity in anything. Use care not to push others into corners, forcing them to fight. Better to have them talking to us during the looming struggles ahead.




Last edited by King Brown; 03/01/13 02:54 PM.