When you write a blog you have to remember you have a wide and varied audience. What you do not want to do is to polarize your audience. You do not want them to hate you because of your views. Either you need to be some what of a politician and be hush hush on your position or you need you are proud and make a stand on what type of person you are.
It's not wrong either way. You can take politics, religion, immigration, animal rights, or the environment as some of many topics that bring down right hostility. A PETA person hates hunters. I myself had a relative that hated using animals for testing even though she wore makeup and took medicines that were probably developed with animal research. So if you do not live in an avid hunting area should you broadcast your love of killing animals for sport and food. I probably wouldn't do it.
I could go on and on about topics like abortion, the rights of immigrants, welfare, or how certain religions dictate rules to their members. I myself got caught up in a debate about an article I wrote in a written newsletter just recently. It did polarize some of my readers without me thinking about it.
I was attacked by a swan on Cedar Island Lake in White Lake Twp when I was trying to get back down a canal from where I started from. I ended up having to get a boat to block me so I could get back to my friends house. The swan was just protecting it's young but it was a 30' wide canal and wouldn't even let me go down on the far side.
Well on some southeastern Michigan lakes the swans are multiplying in huge numbers due to lack of predators. They are a non-native species. One lake (Oxbow Lake White Lake Twp) has over a hundred of them in one spot. It has gotten so bad that Michigan DNR has instituted a program to kill off some of them. The DNR is worried about the ecological balance of the swans eating all the vegetation. One city has blocked it and made it illegal to kill them. I made the mistake of just saying "that the city might be sorry when the lakes are over run with them".
I myself no longer hunt. In fact I no longer even own a rifle or shotgun. After my wife died I have become softer. I have come to the age of live and let live. The bunnies and ground hogs that eat my vegetables don't get shot, they get relocated to another location. I don't see much reason to kill animals just because.
I do think we sometimes have to get involved when nature no longer has the checks and balances. We no longer have the native fox, mink, or snakes on Southeastern Michigan lakes that we had years ago. Now we have wall to wall houses on almost every available spot on the lake. Those predators of young swans and swan eggs have allowed some population of swans to multiply 50% a year.
So what do you do when you reach a point of an overabundance of swans, that upsets the balance of a lake? I see both sides. The side of the animal lover that says to let them live. And I see the rights of the lake residents to make a decision to reduce the number. It is same about selling unspoiled land to a hotel or a golf course. Or whether Romney or Obama is best. It can lose you customers. So you have to be careful. It is America and everybody has their right to say what they want and believe what they want whether you like it or not. Just like Chick-a-fil president learned you have to be careful of what you say. It could create a controversy that could hurt your business in the long run.
You won't win the argument. But if you believe in something strongly, stand for it, and suffer the long term results. Just think through dangerous topics before you write. Who would have know SWANS were a tough subject!
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