While birders might often lament our inability to affect real political change as it relates to conservation and the environment it has to be acknowledged that we do have more clout than some communities. Sadly and shockingly, sometimes birds have more pull than African-Americans.
And a hat-tip to Dave Magpiong for the link.
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
Sad state of affairs
I lived in Biloxi for a few months in early 2005. It was the most backward place I had ever been in my life! East Europe was in far better condition last time I had checked! Although I did notice and was impressed that the Audubon Society there seemed to have had some influence. And the Air Force Base did have a very nice library. Still, I could not believe that I was still in the States when I was there. Such a weird place . . . some things there were very nice, others not at all . . .
i am from Vermont’s NEK and had to move to the mid-south tn. i am shocked and amazed at the backwards,blatant racism, and just hate of everything. When i pulled up the news back home i was the usual barn fire, snow storm, loon count, etc. here there is a few if not more, violent acts daily and when tallied at the time the Sunday paper comes, there could be maybe 5-6-9-10 murders, 9 violent attacks, break-ins, etc. the racism is so obvious it hurts. i really need to go back home soon. However, the support of the NO HUNT CRANES was amazing. When i had the guts to mention it to the neighbors around here the response was just pure hate. Lot of HATE here and its institutionalized hate. its hard to bird here when i must look over my shoulder often. that makes for a bad birding experience….