As most Americans will recall, there are eight Associate Justices on the United States Supreme Court. One of them is Sonia Sotomayor, who originally came from the Bronx in New York City. Now it is important for readers of these essays to know that no self-respecting fox, raccoon, squirrel, or rabbit has ever inhabited the confines of the Bronx for perhaps more than 150 years. Sonia Sotomayor now lives in Washington DC and has accepted an invitation from Antonin Scalia, also an Associate Justice, to go hunting this fall.
You will recall that two or three years ago Antonin Scalia took the Vice President, Richard Cheney, with him on one of these hunting trips. In spite of the fact that the administration had many pieces of legislation before the Supreme Court, it is alleged – mostly by Scalia – that they never ever discussed these cases. I intend to guard my reputation as an essay writer. I would tell you to take this assertion by Scalia with a shovel full of salt.
But apparently Sonia Sotomayor has accepted or will accept Antonin Scalia’s invitation to go hunting this fall. The purpose of the hunting trip is to kill birds such as doves or quails and to have them served for dinner. The preparation of the dinner, which includes denuding the birds of their feathers, is performed largely by black people who work on the grounds where the hunting takes place. Of course, I do not have a weight chart to assess the needs of Scalia and Sotomayor for food. On the other hand, those two justices of the United States Supreme Court are reasonably well paid. They have at least three months off, from July to October, before they even start getting another set of cases. During this time off, they can make as many speeches as they wish to supplement their income. The point is that this hunting trip is being billed as sport, not as an eating adventure.
It was on one of these sporting adventures that former Vice President Cheney shot a friend of his and Scalia’s in the face. Fortunately, the man survived. But here we have an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court sponsoring trips for the purpose of killing birds. I believe that this is a totally inhumane effort at murder.
But apparently Sonia Sotomayor seems to have accepted Scalia’s invitation to go hunting this fall. The murder of these innocent birds is not a sport at all. The hunter has a high-powered shotgun. Of course the birds have nothing to retaliate with. It is simply a case of murder of these birds. My hope is that Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor comes to her senses and rejects the invitation to go hunting with Scalia. I suspect that after one trip with Scalia, Sonia Sotomayor will be impressed with the struggles the birds go through after they are shot. The birds struggle for life, which is slowly ebbing away. But Scalia and the other so-called hunters simply remark upon their marksmanship.
Now we shift back to a scene that occurred at least 85 years ago. There was a dead tree that stood about 150 yards beyond our property in Richmond Heights, Missouri. During much of that time, my mother kept chickens. Hawks or other predatory birds would roost in that dead tree and from time to time would swoop down to share the food or most importantly to kill my mother’s chickens. My father had a shotgun. As I recall it, he was an excellent marksman. The birds would sit on a dead limb of this tree. My father would take aim at them and would invariably kill them on the first shot. So no more dead chickens until the next time a hawk decided to kill my mother’s chickens.
There came a time when I was probably five years old that I asked my father why he did not shoot the other birds that flocked around our home. My father, as I recall it, was greatly offended. He said, in his country speak voice, “Them birds did nothing to harm any of us. They love their lives as much as you love yourn.” The word “yourn” is a contraction involving the words yours and own. If he had been a scholar, he would have said, “They love their lives as much as you love your own.”
The words that came out of his mouth are typical of country speakers who say, “They love their lives as much as you love yourn.” Those words have stuck with me for all of the ensuing 85 years. I have never owned a gun nor do I ever wish to go hunting. I cannot imagine any man who has survived a wartime experience attempting to go hunting. But as you know, Antonin Scalia never served one day in the uniform in the military forces of this country.
At this date, an invitation from Scalia to Sotomayor is more or less tentative. Sotomayor is a lady and I doubt that she would take my advice, in which I would say to Scalia, “You can take your invitation to go hunting and cram it.” But she is a lady. But I sincerely hope that she will find a way to avoid accompanying Scalia as he murders birds in the interest of sport. That, my friends, is a miscarriage of justice of the first order.
E. E. CARR
October 27, 2012
Essay 711
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Kevin’s commentary: Hunting has generally struck me as pretty pointless for the idea that Pop outlined. Once we sorta got past the bow and arrow there doesn’t seem to be all that much skill involved. If your gun’s good enough, it presumably takes some effort to miss. Unless you’re a vice president.
The second part of Pop’s story which mentions hawks also made me think about how cool it would be if most bird hunting was still done with OTHER BIRDS. That’s how they used to do it. And how they still did it rather close to Pop, namely at the JFK airport, until very recently. Check out the article here.