Ted’s Tangents
By Ted Nugent
It’s a fact my fame and fortune has come as a rock star. But I’m proud to say I’m also recognized as a dedicated hunter and gun owner.
For more than 35 years, my career has allowed me to communicate with an amazing cross-section of society via my radio, television and print media interviews – more than 1,000 in the average year. It seems that no matter where I go, I am approached by all sorts of people voicing their support and appreciation for my pro-gun and pro-hunt activism and for standing up for what I believe in.
The important point here is not that I can access and use major media to get the truth across to millions of people, nor is it at all about me individually because people recognize me as a hunter/gunner. The real power of all this is that the public embraces someone, anyone, who is associated POSITIVELY with hunting and guns. We are in fact not the bad guys as depicted by the dishonest media of the land. It is this distinctly positive association that should be the battle cry for hunters and shooters everywhere, for in this cultural war for our God-given rights, victory will be determined by one simple reality: PR. Public relations, pure and simple. Will the anti-gunners and anti-hunters be more convincing… or will we?
Quite simply, are they better at selling their lies than we are at delivering the truth? If we are losing, we deserve to be losing because we are not trying as hard as they are. I for one will not stand by and let this go unchallenged.
Like the simple truism of hunting, “right place at the right time,” our sacred and honorable outdoor and Second Amendment heritage too will be won or lost based on the believability and passion of our message.
First and foremost, the hunting/shooting community needs a serious upgrade in basic social education and PR101. Each and every hunter should know the history of wildlife mismanagement and the eventual turnaround brought about by hunters and trappers in the early 1900s. Every true hunter should be able and prepared at all times to share with the people in their lives how Teddy Roosevelt, Aldo Leopold, John Hornady and other hunters spearheaded the fight to end the marketing slaughter that was unregulated commercial hunting. How professional trappers alerted the world to the eradication of North American beaver populations. How John Hornady, a true hunter, saved the last buffalo from the indiscriminate guns of the U.S. Cavalry. How America’s most famous hunter, President Theodore Roosevelt, demanded regulations and restrictions on all hunting, fishing and trapping, and was the first American to set aside vast wild lands as parks to ensure healthy wildlife habitat and conditions.
Every hunter in America today should be able to rattle off statistics about how there are more wild turkey, whitetail deer, Canadian geese and mountain lions in North America today than in the history of American record-keeping. They should share with everyone, how, because of hunters’ generosity, goodwill and money, we celebrate more deer, turkey, wildfowl, elk, buffalo, cougars, moose, eagles and bears than in more than 150 years. Any hunter who gives a darn should make it a point to initiate this discussion with people in every gathering they are a part of. Letters to editors and discussions on talk radio should be our hue and cry across the land, day in and day out.
We should use the terms honor, heritage, conservation, balance, renewable resource stewardship, environmental awareness, bio-diversity, health, sustain yield, carrying capacity, natural cycle, natural order, tooth-fang and claw, essential surplus harvest, quality air, soil and water producing habitat, and so many other real-world terms and facts that best convey our successful management of wildlife to the public in a thoughtful, caring yet passionate fashion. We must all learn to speak with passion and conviction, never letting some dim-wit use cartoon characters to describe living, breathing, flesh-and-blood creatures that deserve so much more respect. And when we hear someone disrespect animals this way, we should show righteous disdain for such ignorance and callousness. In other words, take control of the subject and neutralize the argument on an intellectual level.
One of the most effective maneuvers I have used in my activism is bringing the truth to children in schools. Not too long ago, nearly all the grade-schoolers in a New York community actually believed the whitetail deer was an endangered species. This was during a period when deer numbers in those same regions were at historic highs.
Think about that one for a minute. That is not a result of “anti’s” action; it is a direct result of our non-action, and we should be ashamed of ourselves. When I do a room-father gitdown at my children’s schools or a DARE program at schools around the country, I bring in mounted deerheads, bows and arrows and backstraps to grill on a hibachi in order to bring home the point, once and for all, to the kids that deer are everywhere and that they are a renewable source of FOOD! The kids get it right now and they will not forget it, I promise you. Our Ted Nugent United Sportsmen of America members and directors have been doing that for 12 years now, and we very much hope other sport groups would wake up to this most important recruitment program and get cracking.
It’s called ACTIVISM. It is simply standing up for what you believe in, and not waiting for the enemy to get in a lick. We must be the pro-active initiators, getting the truth into everyone’s lives. We must establish a basic understanding by society in general so as to create a fact-filled intellectual defense barrier against any enemy intrusion. The best defense is always a well-thought-out offense.
Wear a clean camouflage hunting shirt everyday you can. Wear a hunting club cap and smile courteously at everyone. Think about how you can impact all those people you shop with, go to movies with, eat with, worship with and interact at every level with. A well-groomed, friendly demeanor goes a long way in countering the lies that we are all drunken Bubbas, I assure you. Put that hunting decal on your vehicle window, and drive courteously, offering someone a prime parking spot or a friendly wave and smile. Put that hunt sticker on your office window and tell your business associates how great your last hunt was. Have photos of the family with guns and game on the walls where you display your pride for all to see. In the absence of all this positive visibility, the lies of our enemies more effectively take root. DO NOT LET THAT HAPPEN JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE TOO LAZY TO BEAT THEM AT THEIR OWN GAME!
Remember, I’m the MotorCity MadMan. I scare middle-class folk with my guitar and attitude. Yet still I am greeted everyday by friendly, open people from every walk of life. The National Arbor Day Foundation gave me a Conservationist of The Year Award. The Michigan Legislature was not afraid to name me Conservationist of the Year. I am a DARE officer, constantly invited to speak to grade school children. I represent Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Students Against Destructive Decisions, The NRA, the NFAA, and Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Dying children request to hunt with me as their last wish. Members of the clergy use my name as a role model during sermons. Good grief! If I can break down those petty walls of prejudice against rock-n-roll, hunting and gunner stereotypes, anybody can and everybody darn well oughtta.