I don't mean to be provocative or anything: but a couple of things in the
last ed.  struck me as odd.
 
Let me say, first of all, that because I live in NC (home of the Nastiest
Living Epidemiologist In Government) and because I have actually had a
ferret bite a teenager (situation saved by an understanding MD, God bless
him), I am completely on the side of campaigning against government
confiscation of ferrets.
 
But in the last edition, I saw the word "murder" used in conjunction with
this kind of confiscation for lethal testing; the word "martyr" followed in
a posting, in a different context.  These words trouble me: "murder" refers
to the taking of a human life for purposes of perceived gain or hatred.  A
"martyr" is someone killed explicitly for inflexibility of belief or for
integrity of conviction who then becomes a symbol.
 
While ferret deaths are tragic, irrational and must be resisted, this kind
of language tends, in my mind, to suggest a loss of perspective.  Words
matter.  I think it would be well to reserve words such as these.  When
"murder" means any killing of some loved creature, I have no powerful
language to use when they come for my son.  When "martyr" applies to my
four-legged, no matter how unjustly killed, I have no more words to apply to
saints, heros, or messiahs.
 
Final note: I have written my letter to his honor of Michigan, and stand
ready to wax rhetorical on behalf of any alleged malefactor on four legs.
 
   otter
[Posted in FML issue 1605]