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June 8, 2005
Dear Mr. Ross,
After your
last letter, I had talked over your new program with my fellow instructors and
we decided to further investigate it and probably embrace the idea of more hands
on. It seemed like the skills part of your program was very similar to what we
had been doing up to this current season. However sir, I am at odds with the
events over this past day. I am going to tell you about them and then I will
await a letter from you in the near future.
As it
happened, last week I was contacted by my local WCO Mike Wojtecki and called me
at my residence in the evening and stated that I was supposed to meet him at the
Northwestern Regional Office on a possible date that was set aside. I asked him
what this was about and he stated that he did not know. So I pondered this over
the weekend wondering what Regis Senko wanted to talk to me about. The day came
and I arrived at the Northwestern Regional Office and was greeted by Regis
however Mr. Wojtecki could not make it. I was there to be cordial, however the
time that I was spent there I was chastised for my opinions about the new
program. I was trying to understand where this was going but Regis was being
very agenda oriented on the fact that he felt that I was trying to tell the Game
Commission how to do their job. I explained that that was not my issue but
rather the fact that my specialty is psychology and that I know how these new
hunters think and act. He did not listen to me. He even told me that he was
talking. This was not a good meeting and in the end I was told to stop
questioning what was going on. Sir, with all due respect, I am a volunteer and
not an employee of the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The PGC does not own me but
seems to think it does. Technically I am only a temporary when I conduct the
Hunter-Trapper Education program. I am however an employee of the Commonwealth,
Department of Public Welfare and a union member and I resent very much as a
private citizen of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania being bullied by someone who
has a closed mind and an agenda of a meeting that I was not told the conditions
of. I was told to follow a chain of command. I have no chain of command as a
private citizen. The PGC may have a chain of command but I as a private citizen
do not. These Gestapo tactics were not appreciated and threatening to pull my
card is not going to make me stop questioning what is going on. As a private
citizen and a taxpayer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and of the United
States of America, I have the constitutional right to question anything. That is
my God given right. I will continue to question anything I choose to as long as
I live and your organization cannot take that away from me. You can take my card
if you like and you can suspend my hunting privileges till I am old and gray,
but you cannot take away my right to question and my responsibility as a citizen
to comment on things that I do not like. This is America and your people should
know better than to tell me that I cannot exercise my right of free speech.
Your organization seems to thrive on being an autocratic system that bullies
people for their own agenda. A day will come and this type of behavior that is
unethical and unjust will be questioned by others and dealt with on a civil
level.
This could have been
avoided by information on how the determination of the new program was made and
not by keeping it all secrete and trying to belittle me. I was told that all of
this was done over 5 years ago. Where is the sharing of information on this
issue? I know as a state employee that paper is always generated from meetings,
so why was this report not shared with other instructors that came on after that
meeting of 5 years ago? Remember sir, that without out us volunteers and the
time we give and the effort put into this program, hunting will start to wane.
Sir, I had started to embrace the thoughts of at least the skills program but
after this meeting that took time out of my busy schedule and solved almost
nothing more than to ire me, I am not sure that I want to be a part of this
program anymore and further I may even think about a more drastic approach to
further question your organization for what was done to me. Just think that all
this started over the fact that I, as a private citizen, a hunter and a
psychologist, voiced my opinion over an article in the Pennsylvania Game News.
This has definitely gone out of control. After all, I am the one who has been
dealing with the youth that are going to become the new hunters for over two
decades. I have seen the change in attitude and how they process information. I
am the one who has seen and reported on the fact that they have no thoughts of
consequence and responsibility. I never once told you what your job is and I
have never told you how to do it. This I was accused of at the start of this
meeting The only thing that I have done was cautioned you about doing things a
certain way that will diminish the value of the experience of the hunter trapper
education program and hunting in regards to the way that the current youth value
it. At this point sir, I am at a crossroads and did not deserve the treatment
that I received from Regis Senko. However I believe that I deserve an apology
for what happened and an explanation of why I was not told about the content of
the meeting. I believe that this type of game playing is very unprofessional and
childish and the bullying was not necessary. I am a reasonable man and I have
the character to back it up. However the way this meeting went and the attitude
of Mr. Senko was demeaning and closed. He had an agenda and he was not willing
to listen. I was willing to listen and cooperate with the new ideas to a point
but now; I question the attitude and direction. I personally have put a lot of
time and effort into continuing on the tradition of hunting and after today, and
the way I was treated; I don’t see why I should continue to do anything for the
program or the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Only time will tell this story. I
respectfully await your response.
Respectfully,
Dr. Paul A. Bensur, Jr.
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