Leaders could embrace positive dove symbol

What better illustration of the beliefs in the sanctimony of family life than is represented by the lowly mourning dove. This bird only mates with the opposite gender, it mates for life and it practices deception to protect its mate. It helps its mate feed its offspring and will go into deep mourning when its mate is shot.

Doesn't this sound like the virtues of the very programs extolled by the paragons of family life, U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, and Bob Vander Plaats, the leader of The Family Leader?

If this is correct, why haven't they come to the defense of one of the creatures of God's creation that is being readied for wholesale slaughter by the target-shooting sportsmen of Iowa?

I can understand King's hesitation at defending this bastion of mating; after all, a lot of doves winter in Mexico and Central America, and when they fly back to Iowa they become illegal immigrants because of no visa. King's philosophy when it comes to immigrants probably explains his silence.

But why the silence of Vander Plaats? His group should be making the mourning dove its organizational bird in recognition of its habits, which conform to so many of their beliefs.

Oh well, so much for politics and the quest for the almighty dollar to make up the decrease in hunting license fees and taxes on ammunition.

Baxter Freese

Iowa City