Wildlife Damage Management, Internet Center for
Date of this Version
April 1987
Abstract
The legislature is a modern version of a system that allows us to get along and bring our values together, sort them out, and establish ground rules under which we function. As we imbalance nature in our favor and apply our values through the legislature and congress, one prevailing value is that most of us will go to war for our right to own property. Yet there are times when our point of view functions in such a way that we say this process should provide us authority and power over somebody else's property as long as nobody exercises that same authority over ours. My philosophy is that you should not seek from government any power over another person that you do not wish to abide by yourself. Within that framework then, one of the principles I have applied in the legislative process is that everybody in a democratic society is entitled to access that system. In other words, one's point of view, idea, value is entitled to be injected into the legislative system; and, I have faith enough here in South Dakota that the 105 people who meet every year represent enough of our societal values so that the right answer will come out.