Peter Laufer - Dangerous World of Butterflies: The Startling Subculture of Criminals, Collectors, and Conservationists

Copyright 2009, 2010 by Peter Laufer

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Globe Pequot Press, Attn: Rights and Permissions Department, P.O. Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437.

Lyons Press is an imprint of Globe Pequot Press

Text design: Sheryl P. Kober

Layout: Kim Burdick

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Laufer, Peter.

The dangerous world of butterflies : the startling subculture of criminals, collectors, and conservationists / Peter Laufer.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-59921-555-6 (alk. paper)

1. ButterfliesEconomic aspects. 2. ButterfliesCollectors and collecting. 3. ButterfliesConservation. 4. ButterfliesEffect of human beings on. I. Title.

QL542.L38 2009

595.789075dc22

ISBN 978-1-59921-927-1

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

With love to

Sheila, my

flutura

fertito

hu die

kupukupu

pinpirin

Schmetterling

papall

chou

sommerfugl

buttorfleoge

papillon

parpar

lepke

farfalla

drugelis

prpruk

borboleta

bbochka

mariposa

titli

leptir

buom buom

vlinder

skoenlapper

rama-rama

psyche

butterfly

WHATS YOUR NEXT BOOK GOING TO BE ABOUT?

Without fail, when I read to audiences in bookstores, when Im interviewed on radio and TV about my work, even when Im introduced in a purely social setting as an author, that question comes up. Its as predictable as migrating Monarchs.

Im a journalist. I deal with the news, and in case youre lucky enough not to notice, theres some pretty bad news going around. I report on earthquakes, fires, and floods, along with wars and other man-made disasters. My books include a study of Americans rotting in prison overseas. I traveled around the world for that one, to twenty-one countries, checking in on Americans locked up in some of the most miserable conditions imaginable. Ive written about a sordid and infamous rape case in New Jersey. Ive written about the rise of neo-Nazism in Germany. My book about migration from Mexico to Gringolandia introduces the reader to the selfish hate spewing from American flagwaving vigilantes parading along the border, and the ghastly death-defying trail our economys laborers tread as they commute to their underpaid jobs.

The news often is grim, of course.

As the Iraq War debacle continued, I wrote Mission Rejected, a book profiling American soldiers who returned from the Iraq War opposed to it, and those who refused deployment to the Middle East to fight it. And although I try to convince readers that it isafter all the blood and gutsan optimistic book because these soldiers risk their freedom, their careers, and their reputations when they follow their consciences, theirs are sad, sad stories.

One day up in Fairhaven, Washington, at Village Books, a vibrant independent bookstore overlooking the Bellingham Bay, I heard the query again.

Whats your next book going to be about?

The audience packed the ground floor of the store, jammed onto folding chairs and standing around the bookshelves. It was a hot summer night, and I had been up at the lectern reading from the Iraq book and answering questions for over an hour. I was wearing a suit coat that I could not take off without ruining the video of the event CSPAN was recording because the microphone cord was snaked inside my jacket and the microphone was clipped to my lapel. I was sweating under the hot lights the camera crew insisted were needed for a good picture, and the store was not air-conditioned.

The give-and-take with the crowd was spirited, but I was ready to call it a night when the predictable question provided my exit strategy.

A woman raised her hand and called out in a desperate-sounding voice, I find myself getting mired in this war. How do you get perspective so you can be effective? Of course she wasnt just asking me for my opinion. It was much more of a collective plea, a plaintive howl of, What should we do, what can we do, what must we do?

Behind me was a huge banner reading THIS WAR IS UNWINNABLE & IMMORAL. In front of me were rows and rows of antiIraq War activists and Vietnam Warera veterans, allit seemedas crazed as I was about the tragedy of the Iraq War, consumed by a desire to try to figure out what to do to stop it.

Fatigue sets in, I finally said about the overwhelming sadness about the war that permeated the room. Its so depressing, and its really hard to fight against it all the time. There have to be laughs. We have to find some relief. And yet our work against the war is unending because the machine is extraordinarily pervasive. I paused and smiled, and I used a line Id come up with a few weeks before at another reading in an attempt to end the evening with some relief from all the grief. Thats why my next book, I announced, is going to be about butterflies and flowers. A predictable titter rippled through the crowd, and I waved good-bye. As I signed books for the audience, we agreed we were exhausted by the trauma of war.

When CSPAN broadcast the Bellingham event, the network posted my Web site on the TV screen, and the next day I was on the receiving end of an avalanche of email, with about half of it in support of the anti-war soldiers and the other half in favor of the attack on Iraq.

Some of the incoming notes were seriously nasty, but often with a comic turn of a phrase, like these words from a fellow named Nicholas Troiano: I am currently watching you on CSPAN. You sicken me. Please, stay in Canada. You disgrace this country. As a young American who aspires to be a future politician, you really disgust me. And then the entertaining closing line, Feel pleased I took the thirty seconds to acknowledge you, Nick.

Some of the criticism was just sober disagreement, such as these words from a J. E. Harrington. Hello, Mr. Laufer. I have to say I think you are as far off the mark as one can be. I believe your public position on the war gives strength to our enemies. If we had listened to the weak and those who did not want to fight in World War II, I would have heard you deliver your message in German. And then a gracious salutation, Regards, J. E. Harrington.

Warren G. MacDonald saluted what he called my very impressive journalism credentials before he slammed me with your left-leaning ideas in Mission Rejected bring dishonor to our wonderful men and women serving to protect you in your right to say such demeaning commentary.

From an anonymous correspondent came: What is immoral, sir, is the likes of you and your ilk defending tyrants and dictators worldwide. Are you really that out of touch with reality? The sixties are over, Pete. Learn to deal with it a little, buddy! When tyrants and dictators speak, they quote you and yours. There is blood on your hands, sir. Like it or not, that is a fact. It was (bizarrely) signed with a hearty, Good day!