My American Creed

Hello, my name is Lauren Maines and I am an 11th grade student at Elizabethtown Area High school. I grew up in a family connected to their roots. Staying connected to your roots is one important part of being an American. Hunting close, guns, and deer antlers have been passed down for many years. Having these things passed down through our family and other families who have also passed their belongings down is what makes us a closer community. My great grandfather was always a big hunter thanks to his father and the generations before him. My great grandfather passed his love of hunting down to my pap who passed it on to my dad. Hunting in my family is one thing that will continue to keep us connected to each other and also connected to our roots. When we go hunting, it is another way he connect to our community by easy things like talking about our trips or simply saying “good luck!” Unfortunately I do feel like our community has lost our sense of communication and being a team. I think it is important for a community to be a quiet team. I’ve learned from hunting that it is a quiet way of team work we are missing. I understand that hunting is not in everyone's interest, but as a community we should be supporting what gives a family the privilege to keep close. For my family hunting is not just about killing animals, hunting is about what happens when we are all together. Anytime you get a chance to get together ad do anything with you family it should always be appreciated. When you have a community of like-minded individuals in creates something amazing. When adults can get together and tell old stories and listen carefully and relate to each others stories in really shows how important and wonderful it is to have a sense of community. Without community, all families would be independent, we would not have passed down traditions. Whether people in a community support hunting or not, it will always give a strong sense of conversation. The tradition of hunting is a perfect activity for communities to do together since it can involve anyone. Not to mention this time is a perfect chance to get you and kids away from any technology whether is be work e-mails, social media, or video games. Although with the growing amount of technology the hunting tradition is becoming less and less. The facts are that hunters are some of the world’s best conservationists, spending lots of money each year to support wildlife management and important habitat work. As the traditional hunting crowd ages, there’s a noticeable lack of younger hunters and with fewer hunters buying licenses and specific wildlife stamps or initiatives, there are fewer dollars to spend on keeping our wildlife populations healthy and balanced. Which means our great American tradition may slowly disappear. By getting children involved at a young age and taking your family hunting as often as possible, you can teach them about the important function they could serve to help continue the tradition. By keeping the tradition going it will continue to bring the communities together a few times a year during he hunting seasons, I am glad I was taught this tradition and hope that this tradition will continue through the later generations.