On a hot July day in 1776, 56 bold souls affixed their
signatures to a revolutionary document.
The declaration that they endorsed asserted that each individual human
being is entitled to his or her fundamental rights to “life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness”. Furthermore their
missive defined the role of just authority by stating that “to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men”.
I do not recall
anything else in America’s founding charter about the rights of tortoises or
other fauna. Yet here in 2014 our federal “rights protectors” are bringing armed
force to bear in defense of tortoises and in violation one family’s historic
cattle grazing rights and began seizing their cattle.
Cliven
Bundy’ family has been grazing cattle on this land for over 130 years. As Mr. Bundy tells it, "My forefathers
have been up and down the Virgin Valley ever since 1877. All these rights I claim
have been created through pre-emptive rights and beneficial use of the forage
and the water. I have been here longer. My rights are before the BLM even
existed.".
The Federal Bureau of
Land Management (BLM) began contesting this longstanding practice after it had
been going on for over a century. The controversy
came to a boil this past week as armed federal agents surrounded the ranch and
began confiscating Bundy’s livestock.
Outraged citizens responded by rallying to the Bundy’s
support, many from great distances.
Shamefully the Feds tried to herd these patriots into a cordoned
off “First Amendment Areas” where they could vent their displeasure. Is this what the “public square” has become –
a limited and constrained space where free expression may be tolerated? Are dissenters to be stigmatized like smokers
and quarantined into cubbies? Reports of
the Feds assaulting freedom lovers outside of the First Amendment Areas” were
numerous.
Even more shameful was County Commissioner, Tom Collins, who
warned that Bundy supporters “better
have funeral plans”. This man is a
traitor to people that he was elected to protect and the Constitution that he
swore to defend. He can learn a lot from
local officials like Sherriff Richard Mack,
the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association
(CSPOA.org) and the Oath Keepers
who protect their constituents from unlawful federal harassment.
To his credit, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval condemned the federal
incursion stating that, "No cow justifies the atmosphere of intimidation
which currently exists nor the limitation of constitutional rights that are
sacred to all Nevadans." Unfortunately he stopped short of sending in
State Troopers or the Nevada National Guard to protect his people.
Happily, as of this writing (4/12/14), it looks like the
Feds have backed down and are pulling up states for now. For Now.
Perhaps the Bundy Ranch will be the new Bunker Hill where a
free people come to learn once more that they can stand up to armed oppressors
with superior firepower. But you can be
dollars to doughnuts that the Feds will be back, if not here than somewhere
else and with greater force and heightened determination. It is up us, as a free people, to remain
vigilant, to rush to each other’s aid and to be brave in the face of force and
intimidation.
Post script – what may have won this battle was not the
Bundy’s and his supporters’ tenacity but a breaking scandal concerning a Harry
Reid led land grab on behalf of a Chinese solar farm project. He may want to deflect attention from that
sordid deal.
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"Half the people are stoned and the other half are waiting for the next election.
Half the people are drowned and the other half are swimming in the wrong direction."
- Paul Simon
Half the people are drowned and the other half are swimming in the wrong direction."
- Paul Simon
A Mr.Michael Cole offered the following commentary on Facebook: " Or the triumph of the welfare state when a moocher can use federal lands for free..... he achieved corporate personhood status..... something I guess we should all aspire to."
ReplyDeleteTo which the Two Percenter replied: "Michael, thanks for your feedback. The fact that Bundy was grazing cattle on Federal land is the one blight on his resume. However, permit me to offer a few thoughts on that. One – his family and others had been using that land for over a century before the land became an environmental protection zone. Two – I would submit that that in terms of “welfare”, grazing cattle on otherwise useless land is much different that the government making direct transfers of our hard earned dollars to prop up failing corporations or pay someone’s rent and grocery bills. Third - the federal government’s response was entirely disproportional to the issues at hand – tortoises and $1 million in unpaid user fees. This is typical of tyrannies (and mobsters). They will spend a thousand dollars to collect a single dollar just to make an example of the reprobate and to strike fear in others who may consider similar actions. Like most bullies, however, the feds backed off and ran away way the victim stood his ground."
Addendum to the above: "The last point that I neglected to mention is that federal government has no business owning mass tracks of land. Other than defense installations, courthouses and perhaps Interstate Highways the Feds have no constitutional authorization to be landlords. Privatization would solve the usage issue. Bundy could buy the land and use it.. A neighbor might buy and lease it to him. In either case the Feds are rightfully out of the equation. Finally Federal land sell offs could go a long way towards paying down debts and meeting entitlement obligations."
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