Conservation Corner: October 1, 2001

1951 - Aunt Minnie Was Right, Strong Defense Needed
by James L. Cummins

Sitting at home watching the news of the rubble and ash and carnage in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania is the saddest event that I have observed in my lifetime.

Ray Mosby, an award-winning Mississippi newsman, recently said in an editorial in his small newspaper, "The murderous minds and hands of fundamentalist madmen in a single act of unspeakable barbarity have accomplished what an entire generation of political leaders, clergy and opinion molders have been woefully unable to do - unite the United States of America."

No where, or at least in my presence, was that more evident than at a recent football game in Starkville. When Mississippi State's ROTC Chapter unveiled the stars and stripes that covered most of the southern end of Scott Field and most of the 40,000 attendees held up a small flag, I knew there was nothing but truth in Ray's words. Many times I will use this column to try to inform our citizenry about what they can do for conservation, report some conservation news or stress the need for more funding for a specific conservation program. Not today. In fact, I think that funding to protect our nation is more important than funding to protect our environment. We can spend many years working to improve something only to have it brought down in a 30-minute period by some terrorist.

My great-aunt Minnie Chesteen, who is now 87, was one of the first female presidents of the Mississippi Education Association. Although she was the state's leader on education in 1951, she recognized that a strong defense was more important than education. In 1951 before the first general session of the 65th Annual Convention of the Association, in Aunt Minnie's address, entitled "Education, A Cooperative Enterprise," I found it very interesting when she stated, "The chief impelling need today is for strength to defend our country. To stress education as a chief factor in national defense is therefore a high duty."

Specific to the events of September 11, Aunt Minnie made a point really hit home when she said, "The American way of life is under constant attack from within as well as from without our borders and we must admit it often comes to us in very attractive guise. When those of us who have had the benefit of educational and travel opportunities are sometimes taken in by these false prophets, we cannot wonder that some of our young people are misled." If I had told you that was in President Bush's speech to the nation on September 20, you probably would not have doubted me. It would have been most appropriate, but it was said fifty years ago.

Without a strong defense, our freedom, our way of life and even our environment, will not prosper. It is needed, above all, to protect everything this great nation stands for.

James L. Cummins is Executive Director of the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation in Stoneville, Mississippi. Known as "Wildlife Mississippi," the Foundation is a non-profit, conservation organization founded to conserve, restore and enhance fish, wildlife and plant resources throughout Mississippi.