Editorial: Why Ignoring Does Not Work
Posted by: Loren Coleman on August 25th, 2009
This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy’s methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.
The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn’t create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it — and rather successfully. Cassius was right. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”
Good night, and good luck.
~ Edward R. Murrow,
A Report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy,
See it Now (CBS-TV, March 9, 1954).
Recent events, once again, have brought us to this point. How sad. But necessary, I’m afraid.
Few of you, of course, were old enough to have lived through the McCarthy years. For those that thankfully missed them, let me just briefly share that Senator Joe McCarthy and his associates saw Communists throughout the forests of the government, when it was clear, very few were actually there, behind all those trees where McCarthy said he saw them.
What does this have to do with the affairs of Bigfoot? How does this align with those who see evidence of Bigfoot being killed at Bluff Creek in 1967 in every piece of film and beneath every bush? The true analogy between McCarthy and M. K. Davis is not about them, but us. You see, unfortunately McCarthy created a climate of fear, blacklists, witch hunts, and terror, among civil servants, Hollywood writers, and common citizens, beyond belief in the 1950s. How the general population reacted, in some ways, may have been the saddest part of the story.
For years, silence was how the bizarre but frightening McCarthy years were dealt with, including President Eisenhower feeling that ignoring McCarthy was the best method.
Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?
~ Attorney Joseph Welch’s response to
Senator McCarthy’s continued verbal beating
of a young lawyer, during the Army-McCarthy hearings,
June 9, 1954.
But it was only when people began to stand up to Senator McCarthy, after Edward R. Murrow’s report, after Joseph Welch’s famous remark, and then finally with Kirk Douglas’s breaking of the Hollywood blacklist by openly crediting Dalton Trumbo’s screenplay for Spartacus (1960), that the long shift from fear could truly occur.
Ask yourself, what has the Bigfoot community done in response to the M. K. Davis claims of the last few years? Place yourself in the living shoes of Bob Gimlin and John Green, who are being accused of killing or covering up the killing of Bigfoot. Think about the families and friends of Roger Patterson, Rene Dahinden, and Bob Titmus, who occupy the strange position of having to defend against accusations that those men were involved with a massacre of a band of Sasquatch or the destroying of evidence of such an event.
Read the minority but vocal opinion of three comment makers regarding this news of the latest from M. K. Davis:
“By keeping the ‘story’ going, more attention is given to something that does not deserve scrutiny. And gives it an extended ‘shelf life.'”
“People like Davis are [getting] attention…that they simply shouldn’t be getting. This stuff doesn’t need to be analyzed. It needs to be laughed at, or better yet, ignored.”
“I wonder if this subject deserves the amount of your time that is being put into it.”
Neglecting to speak up about these claims do not make them go away. This massacre business keeps coming back into our community.
Anyone who has watched M. K. Davis and his “digger Indian,” “Bigfoot topknot,” “shooting of Bigfoot,” and “massacre theory” material appear, disappear and then reappear, must realize that his net is getting bigger and bigger. More and more people are being dragged into a witch hunt about a non-existent killing field and coverup. What if you were the person being spotlighted? What if the slide shows talked about you? What if the sinister whispers were directed at your life or your relative’s legacy?
Roger Patterson is not alive to defend himself. Bob Gimlin is a quiet man. Bob Titmus is dead. Rene Dahinden is no longer with us. But John Green is very much alive, and standing up for himself. Davis’s and his associates’ accusations and verdicts-by-browbeating must be addressed, once and for all, by all and not ignored.
I am tired of people justifying an interest in Davis’s claims in the guise of a thorough investigation of the film. Sometimes we have to confront the dysfunctional operatives among us, whether in politics, cryptozoology, or hominology.
There is a famous scene in the Kirk Douglas movie mentioned above, which is an obvious metaphor about speaking in unison against repression. One after another, the assembled stood and said “I am Spartacus,” to the Romans looking for Spartacus.
This is a call to arms, for direct statements from across the Bigfoot community, against the tyranny and stupidity contained in the essence of this “massacre theory” and all of the alleged shocking “evidence” that are merely the products of one man’s thinking.
It is time for everyone to stand up, shoulder to shoulder with John Green and Bob Gimlin.
The moment has arrived to say to M. K. Davis and his friends, “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?”
Enough is enough.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
I agree with Mr. Coleman. As much as I would like for M.K. Davis and his ilk to simply go away and let this ridiculous mess die the death it deserves, he won’t. As long as he is given a forum, and with the freedom of speech still a viable part of our Constitution, he will be back again and again and again. Mr. Davis has found his obsession and will not be denied or ignored until everyone agrees with him. He wants desperately for everyone to see his own vision and he doesn’t much care what he has to do to achieve this.
This will never happen as long as we can freely inspect the ‘evidence’ he has with our own eyes.
So our only recourse is to deny him when he pops up, to ridicule his ‘evidence’ as it deserves, and to realize and report that the lunatic fringe has been seen and it is M.K. Davis.
I would not QUITE compare this to Senator MCCarthy’s era (and I’m sure you’re not saying that, either) but I see your point, Loren—and it is well taken.
Personally I don’t see Davis as the “lunatic fringe” but that is just me. Not am I saying you called him that, Loren. Just responding to Graybear. In fact, it would add “fuel to the fire” if we were to just dismiss him as a “lunatic.” We would be accused of engaging in the same name-calling that Davis and his ilk utilize.
If we Cryptomundians are as a group going to “stand up” and (rightfully) condemn the outrageous (and libelous, to be honest) accusations by Davis and others we have to do it by a careful and point-by-point refutation of the “evidence” he provided. And I feel the evidence has already been more than adequately dimissed and rejected. Enough to thoroughly reject any claims of “legitimacy” the man has. We cannot do this by simply dismissing him as just a “nut.” We are the “honorable” ones here, nothim.
All I’m saying is that Davis has made a total fool out of himself already. All we would be doing is “underlining the main talking points,” so to speak. “Pointing out the obvious,” so to speak. He is “hoisted by his own petard.” But since we NEED to “make a statement”—-
We should say to Davis—Put Up or Shut Up.
Produce the evidence and “Put Up.”
If you can’t, then “Shut Up.”
At least stop impugning people’s characters. And quit scurrying away when people try to have you BACK UP your so-called “evidence” and “theories.”
Have the COURAGE of your convictions, Mr. Davis.
Maybe a threat of a lawsuit from Green for defamatory statements would get him to stop?
I’m not a lawyer here—but would anybody here know if Green would have a “case” here? (Probably not, I guess).
Maybe challenge Davis to come over here and defend his statements like a man? (Which I very much doubt he will, to be honest.)
I’m serious, BTW. 🙂
Ultimately I still feel he has already impugned himself a thousand times over.
All we can do is remind people of that fact.
Let his own words damn him.
But, if you feel we need to do MORE—then what I suggested can be just a start. What would YOU suggest?
And I do get what you are saying, Loren.
I personally was saying in effect “The guy is not worth it.”
I guess he IS “worth it.”
Ok.
Then I guess I was wrong.
At least Green’s good name is “worth it”.
And the reputation and legitimacy of Cryptozoology is “worth it.”
Again—I guess I was wrong. THAT is worth defending.
Let’s just not engage in Name-Calling, Ok?
That’s going down to his “level.”
My two cents. I will go and take my medicine now. 🙂
You are absolutely correct Loren, Davis has gone beyond simply analyzing the P/G film and submitting his conclusions for peer review and turned it into something far more reprehensible. When I viewed the DVD (which I have a copy of) that the claims for the top knot, braid, digger stick, etc. were made and put forth as evidence I simply laughed it off. Then the massacre theory appeared on the interweb and I thought that he had simply lost that last marble. These lastest claims and the accusations being leveled against those mentioned in your thread are just beyond belief.
To sit back and say nothing would be almost as reprehensible as the blatent lies this man is accusing Patterson,Gimlin,Titmus and Green of perpetrating. He should be chastised by all at every opportunity. He should be held accountable for the ridiculous claims he makes with absolutely no collaborating evidence. Everyone in the bigfoot community should stand and expose him for the charlatan he is.
Joe
M. K. Davis stop with your inability to produce evidence. You do nothing but hurt yourself and those who blindly follow you.
I did a video slideshow (8:33 minutes of audio under P-G film clips) with my views on this whole issue last Spring. This should explain fully my views on this whole issue.
These problems are going to keep cropping up in any field like cryptozoology which is out of the scientific “mainstream”. The kind of quality control of ideas which comes through peer review in refereed journals is lacking. And, with the Internet, anybody can publish anything.
I follow a number of non-mainstream or “fringe” fields and they all suffer from the same problem. The needle of truth or genuine mystery is buried in a haystack of nonsense. But ignoring the problem won’t make it go away.
There simply is no preventing this sort of nonsense, and it is likely to get worse. The longer we go with no definitive proof of BF’s existence, the more we will see the emergence of silly, opportunistic nonsense such as the Georgia mess and Davis’s bizarre assertions. Nature abhors a vacuum, and so do the cranks.
In this case there are no bodies, no guilt i’m sure. What a disgusting performance for someone to fabricate pictures of these men with blood on their hands What kind of subliminal and emotional effect must this have? Then there is the very negative effect on public perceptions
What I cannot understand is why there is no legal redress? In one state in the USA isnt there legislation against hoaxing? I wouldnt agree with that, but do think justice is served, where hoaxing or misrepresentation does occurr and and cause harm and where the effect was more than petty, that there should be entitlement to compensation and public retraction.
In this land of legislation where is the legislation and protection under the law?.