We know D.C. Get our free newsletter to stay in the know.
Thank you for the article on the geese (“Honk If You’re Destroying an Ecosystem,” 5/19). While I do love animals, etc., it is absolutely a shame to allow this type of degradation of natural and human resources to continue. What is wrong with people at the helm of the National Park Service, etc.? How dumb can one be when it comes to making a decision to protect human life, health, and community resources?
The birds are clearly out of their habitat. If they cannot be controlled, then they need to be destroyed. But first, let’s determine if they are indeed edible. If so, trap them, prepare them for consumption and let the feast begin.
1. Trapping and preparation can provide jobs.
2. Free protein is needed for the shelters, the poor in our communities, etc.
3. A Goose Feast would provide an opportunity for a big, citywide picnic in which chefs could show their creativity in preparing various dishes with the geese from the river! This could serve as a type of “culling” process.
4. License folks to trap the birds just as you license folks to fish and hunt other species.
5. Open a facility to receive the birds, do a health check and prepare them for consumption for commercial sale.
6. Educate people about how to catch, kill, and prepare for food, and let the people catch their own meals. (Let’s see how long we will have a problem after that!!)
7. What about the down and feathers? Could this be another source of income or a resource to get down feathers cheaply for blankets, coats, etc.?
At any rate, it’s time for the rights and health of people…especially Afro-Americans who live in the near impacted area to be protected! The Langley Golf Course is the one place where Afro-Americans have had the opportunity to engage in the sport without having to mortgage their homes to pay the fees, and where they have felt welcomed without the racial bias and etc. Why do we have to put up with fecal matter all over our balls and feet on this course?
8. This is just another example of how interest groups subjugate the less economically heeled and less socio-environmentally savvy. They don’t have to live with the pestilence in their communities. They just sit in high places and dictate to those in “other” places.
9. And, what about the millions of dollars lost when these pests eat and destroy seedlings that were lovingly planted at great personal sacrifice to save the river? And, we wonder why the poor are so angry? That money could have been used to educate and train for jobs, new skills, affordable homes, decent schools, and playgrounds, recreational programs, etc.
10. Dedicated groups such as the Anacostia Watershed Society are literally giving their blood to try to clean up the cesspool known as the Anacostia River, and to restore it, yet stupid and thoughtless legislations hamper the good that they are doing and that they have been trying to do over the years.
In conclusion, it’s timeout for this foolishness. It’s time for the community in and around the Anacostia to rise up and protest this insensitivity to their needs. I’m looking forward to being a part of the dissidents who refuse to sit any longer and take these insults against their community.
I hope your newspaper will continue to bring this dangerous situation to the attention of the public at large. For your information, I have begun e-mailing your article to everyone I know to inform them of the hazards of these invading marauders in our urban communities.
Mitchellville, Md.