My regular reader (Hi Jeff!) will recall that I have mentioned, from time to time, that for the past 25 years or so I have performed a one-man show as Alexander Hamilton (cough… hamiltonlives.com… cough). It has been quite an honor and a wonderful intellectual exercise to bring Hamilton back to life in the 21st Century and to ponder what he might say about the problems of his time and our own.

I’ve committed many hours of study to mastering Hamilton, both in his views and in his personal traits, in hopes that I can present an honest, interesting, and entertaining show. COVID has created an unwanted break in the live shows, though I’m happy that I get to again wear the wig and tights again this December for my first live show since, what has it been, 50 years, or so, since COVID?

One of the common questions I get asked about during my show is why, after more than two centuries, a show about a dead guy still draws in a big audience. I reply that I think there are two reasons. The first is that we all too often fail to consider the Founders as real people. It’s far easier to think of them as perfect marble statues that had no flaws, but that is most certainly not true. In the early years of our nation then-President Washington was attacked as “a most horrible swearer and blasphemer!” Hamilton, who adored Washington as a father figure, still noted that Washington was “capable of purple and volcanic rages.” To me, that makes the Founders more interesting and the founding of our nation even the more remarkable

The second reason we still find that time interesting is illustrated in a recent Colorado Politics story about a court case. The Constitution, you recall, as remarkable as it is, ultimately is little more than a contract between the government and the people, putting limits on what the government can do. As a result, we have battled each other figuratively in the courts and literally on the Civil War battlefields over the rights that are inherent in our system but are inevitably in conflict with each other. We have settled, frankly, none of the issues the Founders debated at the constitutional convention, such as big states vs small states, gender and race issues, wealth and taxes, and more. These rights in conflict continue to be sources of trouble for us in the 21st century, as is clearly illustrated in the aforementioned CP story.

It seems that between 2007 and 2014 (the years included in the court filings related to the case) Americans imported 126,000 animal trophies each year. The US Fish and Wildlife Service oversees these importations of, well, animal parts, via a permitting system. And now the US Appeals Court ruled on an important aspect of these permits. Do the “hunters” have a right to keep their names private, or is there a public interest in having the names of these people who go overseas to kill big game animals made public? The Appeals Court has ruled that the public has a right to know, and that has caused some concern and, I suspect, embarrassment for those permit seekers.

You may recall the 2015 case of Cecil the rare black-maned lion who was lured out of a protected area and immediately shot with an arrow by a Minnesota-based dentist, who wounded the animal. It took 12 hours to find Cecil and finish him off. They then skinned the lion and cut off his head, leaving the rest for the vultures (except for his tracking collar which was later found dumped miles away. The dentist involved ended up getting a great deal of unwanted attention and likely wished his name had never entered the public realm.

If you have a simple answer, I’m sorry but you are wrong. This is a very complicated and conflicted area of governance. As someone who is personally opposed to trophy hunting, I think I’m okay with the list of people seeking to import big game animal parts having their names out there. But, of course, if the shoe was on the other foot, and it was my privacy at stake, I can’t promise I’d be so noble.

The Appeals Court made a tough call, and it will be interesting to see if the US Supreme Court, now a fully partisan branch of our government, goes along with that ruling. Fingers crossed, but time will tell. Until then, be aware that if you want to kill an animal for sport overseas, your friends and neighbors will be able to find out which body parts you brought home for your trophy room.