Re: Story

[Bob La Londe <none@none.com99>]

On 11/22/2022 5:41 PM, Jim Davis wrote:
> On Thursday, November 17, 2022 at 3:57:21 PM UTC-5, Bob La Londe wrote:
>> On 10/18/2022 8:20 AM, Bob La Londe wrote:
>>> Get creative.  Stop rehashing old themes or...
>>>
>> Oh heck. I realized two seconds after I hit send that I missed a huge
>> opportunity for a discordant reality moment in FLASH POINT.
>>
>> If instead of, "Mr President the bugs on Dr McEvil's space station are
>> working," I had written, "Mr President. System 4 just went live on Dr
>> McEvil's space station," I would have felt so clever with myself.
>>
>> Suspension of disbelief has been suspended.
>> --
>> This email has been checked for viruses by AVG antivirus software.
>> www.avg.com
> Hey Bob,
> Sorry I haven't been participating in the "Story" Just been too busy with business the holiday coming up ( short week)  and getting ready to go deer / coyote hunting. So, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon. this week and Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon. Next week no work. That's a long time to hope that nothing goes awry.
> .
> Trying to get all the detail service done and hope there's no "emergencies" while I'm away.
> I have someone on call but I hate for anyone else to "touch my stuff".
> .
> Obviously my posts will be sparse the next couple of weeks. Not enough time to be "creative".
> .
> However, I must say again, that your show of creative writing has REALLY impressed me a lot. You've never given a hint that you had that talent.
> .
> However, since (as you say) you can't do "everything"  all at once, maybe when you finally decide to slow down enterprise-wise, you can write your memoirs from the point of view of an octogenarian, make a fortune in royalties, and leave it all to your heirs or - - - -
> If you're anything like me, rather to someone who may do something a little more worthwhile with it, like the NRA or Bass Fishing Club of America or some such.


At the risk of being to political Wayne LaPierre has done a lot of
damage to the NRA.  I hope at some point they recover if for no reason
than the long legacy they had established and the influence it carried
in past times.

As near as I can tell no well known "bass" organization is more than a
commercial venture aimed at selling more and more expensive toys
classing out a lot of people who just can't afford them.  I paid $34K
for a very very nice bass boat in 2005.  That same boat geared out
similarly for the times would be $100K to buy new today.  I can buy a
heck of a nice truck for a lot less than that even in this time of truck
"shortages".  I would be willing to support sportspersons and outdoors
groups if I could find one more dedicated to the average or poorer
angler or hunter.  Most of the big groups seem to be more about the rich
hunter or sportsperson.  There are local level organizations that are on
the right page, but they usually only have political clout in their home
regions due to the wealthier and more otherwise influential members.  A
few old groups do have a little more pull due to large numbers, but in
my opinion there are none with multi state or national level influence
that are not atleast somewhat weighted towards protecting wealthy member
opportunities OVER the local guy who wants to bag a dear because its 100
lbs of meat he doesn't have to buy.  Who shoots rabbits everyday after
work to stretch his food budget as I did when trying to save for
college.  Who wants to go out and sit on his easy chair by the local
pond sipping a coffee and enjoying the sunrise without mortgaging a
house to do it.  However I can't put down most of those organizations
whether we see eye to eye or not.  They are doing something.  I do
support some, but probably not to making legacy level donations.

I am more likely to donate to organizations I can see are mostly doing
good work with most of the money.  Firearms Policy Coalition, Gun Owners
of America, Institute for Justice.

As America becomes more and more populated, a larger and larger number
of the population become urbanized (or maybe sub-urbanized), and the
population of "the rural areas" grows denser its going to get harder and
harder to live the outdoor lifestyle I once took for granted.  The
people defending it are a lot more different today than they were when I
was a kid.

There is a wash bottom I used to be able to walk for miles along hunting
quail that is now posted.  Its not posted no hunting by property owners.
  Its literally littered  with dozens and dozens of ugly signs saying,
"You are within 1/4 mile of an occupied building.

There is a historic site near where I grew up where a broken cliff face
is covered in early American stone drawings.  Nobody knew about it, and
it was a several mile drive in to it past only one resident who lived a
a mile or so off the two track going in.  A couple years ago I hunted a
wash and brush line in that area for quail and rabbit.  After cleaning
my kills I found myself driving back along a service road past that
area.  I was absolute stunned by the number of lights I saw scattered
across the desert between the road I was on and that old historic site.

I once spent an entire winter running trap lines (3 months) in the
desert and rarely saw another person.  Mostly when I went home for
supplies and to put up fur.  In more recent years hunting, or just
making a nostalgia visit to some of those areas I can't believe the
number of people I see.  In my lifetime the population of the country
has grown by about 100 million people.  Depending on the numbers you
find maybe as much as 150 million people.  There is no way that the kind
of outdoors I grew up with can be sustained.  There has to be rules, and
restrictions, and the wealthy politicians, lawyers, and business people
write those rules.  You might know individuals in that class who are
truly altruistic, but there is virtually no "groups" who aren't self
serving to some degree.  Even self serving to the exclusion of others
who might be supporting.

For an example of what I mean there is a Outdoors Channel on Youtube by
a very successful and wealthy YouTuber.  He owns multiple ranches and
farms dedicated to his own hunting and fishing adventures.  He has put a
lot of his own money into them.  He deserves the right to the use of his
property as he sees fit and he has the right to exclude others from it
as he sees fit.  In a recent video somebody trespassed on his land to
"poach" a deer.  This hunter deserves to be punished for it.  Loss of
deer certainly.  Suspension of license without a doubt.  Trespassing
charges definitely.  The rich landowner was publicly discussing MURDER
and nobody seemed to bat an eyelash.  I was stunned.  He seems like a
nice guy on video.  He is generous to his friends.  Obviously he is
personable or he wouldn't be successful as a media personality.  He said
if he caught the guy he would kill him.  I won't be watching his videos
anymore.  This is the sort of person who writes the rules or causes the
rules to be written.

Yes, if I was wealthy, (which I am not) I could start a trust or a
foundation but after my death there is no assurance I could have that it
remain how I directed.  Maybe (MAYBE) for the remaining lifetime of one
person.  I once attended a dinner that was ostensibly about setting up
foundations using a foundation management company.  99% of their
presentations was NOT about setting up a foundation.  It was a
commercial that you should give your money to THEIR foundation and just
leave them some general directions about how your wealth "should" be
used.  They actually do manage a scholarship fund with money from a
group I knew of (but was not part of) whom I suggested use some excess
funds they could not legally just spend instead for a scholarship fund.
That organization no longer exists, so there is nobody left who has the
right to demand to see that the foundation is using the money as intended.

Managing wealth for a legacy is difficult.  Sam Would be appalled about
how WalMart has outsourced nearly everything offshore, and how his
descendants have embraced the anti gun anti hunter anti politics.  I am
still surprised they continue to carry firearms and fishing tackle in
their stores.  Its just about the money I guess.  Screw the vision of a
dead man.

I do not have an answer.  There may not be a way to have the answer I
want.  That my son or daughter or my grandson or granddaughter can pick
up a shotgun or a rifle, go out to the desert or the woods, and just go
hunting with nothing more than a single inexpensive license and the
basic gun safety rules I taught them as children.  Maybe ask a farmer
for permission.  (Remember WalMart?  They are dictating to contracted
vendors that they prohibit hunting even when fields are not currently
planted in crops for WalMart.)  I learned this from a lady who manages a
modestly large farming company.  In her offices she proudly has on
display decoys her own dad and uncles used to call in birds over their
fields.  She is not not an anti, but she is forced to be one.  WalMart
is richer than she is and WalMart writes the contract.  You can sign or
they just won't do business with you.

Right now FPC, GOA, and IJ seem to be doing good work in the areas they
say they are, but I don't KNOW that will continue down the road.  I
don't know it well enough that I could leave them a legacy level
inheritance.  If I could be sure it would happen I might choose to leave
any truly legacy level gift of inheritance to strangers.  Not truly
strangers, but small blocks of money to small starting businesses.  To
the guy who starts a contracting company and hires his friend because
his friend has a truck and he can't afford one himself.  To the ex-felon
who can't get a job so he starts his own business, because there is no
way he is going back to prison.  To the guy fixing computers out of his
garage.  To the person making suits with one sewing machine by hand
because they don't have another way to make money while battling their
way uphill through a college system that would rather you die in debt
than any other possible outcome.  To the kid who just graduated from a
tech school and finds nobody is hiring in his field unless he packs up
and moves across the country or around the world.  To a small group in a
new generation of those who are willing to work for themselves.  One
shot in the arm and then its gone.  I know 99% would take the money and
use it for their own ends, but those are good ends.  Employ people,
improve their business, and feed their family.  One might do what I
would do someday.  I absolutely do not want the evil of massive
government bureaucracy getting one dispassionately evil claw into what I
leave behind if there is any way I can prevent it.

Sorry for all the typos, poor structure, or readability issues.  Sorry
for the rambling and ranting.  This was written mostly in one shot with
only infrequent pauses to think for a second.  It was inspired by your
comments and in the end has no real plot or purpose.  Its more of an
expression of frustration of my own inability to have more control of
the direction of things, and recognition of the reality of some things.