No defensive posture here, just an open minded look at both sides of the coin.

Rich Green
Historic Archaeological Research
4338 Hadley Court
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Office:  (765) 464-8735
Mobile: (765) 427-4082
www.har-indy.com

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ron May 
  To: [log in to unmask] 
  Sent: Sunday, April 23, 2006 1:41 PM
  Subject: Re: Individual rights and relic hunting: Thorny issues


  Rich,
   
  After your first response, I raised the issue once again on ACRA and  
  received this reply from Tom King. I expect everyone knows Tom, so will not  bother 
  to introduce him. I have to say that the tone of your  reply read as defensive 
  and made me wonder if you are not a little too  close to the relic-collectors? 
  Moreover, communication threads on these  online bulletins assume a life of 
  their own and there is no rule that  denied me the right to slip away into 
  another thought or two. Idea threads often  move into different areas, such as the 
  connection between criminals and  artifact-hunting. While you may not like 
  it, the connection is apparently well  established and worth discussing.
   
  Ron May
  Legacy 106, Inc. 
   
   
  <<Why in the world would anybody flame you, Ron?  I can imagine  disagreeing 
  with you, but the association of artifact (historic and prehistoric)  
  trafficking and drug trafficking is well enough established anecdotally that I  can't 
  imagine why anyone (without a guilty conscience) would get mad about  it.  It 
  was a widely reported association 15 years ago when I did a study  of 
  collector behavior for SAA and NPS (which never got published -- too kind to  the 
  collectors, I figured).  And it seems intuitively obvious; you're out  in the 
  woods cooking meth or something, why NOT dig up some stuff to sell?
   
  TKing>>