Evening star., 1947-07-01
This and That
By Charles Z. Traceaoell.

"Are there no bad birds?" reader inquiries.
It all depends whose standpoint you look
from.
From the viewpoint of man, there are a
number Of inimtcal birds, but from the birds
eye view, there are very few bad ones.
We always have adopted the birds eye view.
It seems rather fairer
From the standpoint of interest and beauty,
there are no bad birds at all.
That is what differentiates them from man
kind. It is impossible to disassociate mans mind
from what he does
He, the brute, knows better!
The Birds in fact all created things except
man, know no better.
Their minds are not as ours.
It is impossible, fairly, to blame them for
what they do.
Thus hawk may kill another bird and,
that is that, but when man kills another,
he goes back to Cain.
It is impossible, then, to call any created
thing except man bad, in the sense with
which the word Is commonly used among us.
The creatures have no responsibilities except
to themselves and theirs. Man has response
bilities not only to his Maker, but also to the
best in him.
Ethical teachings, as such, went out of the
scholastic window some years ago, but it was
a very great mistake, because it deprived count
less millions of some understanding of the
only thing about mankind that sets us apart
Take the bluejay
Here is beautiful interesting bird, yet
some persons call 1t bad.
They say it eats baby birds of other species,
sucks their eggs and comm1ts otner crimes
too numerous to mention.
Yet no other bird that comes to local gardens
is better, from the standpoint of beauty and
interest.
The jay is, above all, real American.
If we, as Americans, pride ourselves on
a certain amount of brashness, combined with
a bold and successful exterior, we must take
our hats off, then, to this real American bird
for not a one of the others excels him in
these traits
We defy any watcher, after years time,
to say the jay is bad"
He is different, it is true, from chickadee.
The grackle is one often called bad.
We have called him so here, but after
seeing him in the sunlight, with his sparkle,
we have been ashamed of ourself for doing so.
No bird is bad in the sense a human being
means He is bad for what? Usually for some
occupation of our own.
Man views the whole universe as being mace
for him. and so when bird eats his fruit,
or picks up his grain, it is called bad bird
The modern attitude is that the bad IN
him is very little, after all.
We view things today from larger stand
point Life itself is forcing us to do it,,
whether we want to or not
It is impossible to grow red in the face and
shout "look at the robber' when some natural
creature steals a choice tomato of our vine.
Impossible, that is, if we realize how small.
after ALL in comparison with "one world that
red ripe tomato is.
1t is very human, of course, but 1t is not
living up to the best we know. And surely
the need for this is growing evident today to
every thinker We no longer have the right
to refuse to live up to our best. We may be
human" as much as we please, but being
human to date has not got us anywhere,
has It?
If we cannot rise above merely being "just
human" with all its evil, we are doomed to
extinction. And then the passenger pigeons,
who were made extinct by our greed and
cruelty, will have been avenged at last. And
somewhere in the cosmos, God will laugh and
shout. a. Jovs was supposed to do.> 1T serves
them right!"