The deserts and openness that follow the Gorge really do
exhibit a stark difference in what was before and what follows. Not only visually but culturally and
geographically as well, the passage from one existence to another might be more
appropriate and the gateway as it abruptly ends leaving the traveler with a
sense of loss and a sense of excitement as the deserts beyond beckon and
gesture with the sheer size of what is ahead, the road goes on, far beyond our
ability to see so do the possibilities of life and choice.
Between the gorge and the next city is nothing but land,
unused, un-blemished, clean and pure making driving on that single asphalt road
an afterthought of the real reason for being there. Nevada is a beautiful state but near the
border of Nevada and Arizona there exist turmoil of significant
proportions. I had read about the
problem, the rancher and his claim to the land that the BLM has tried to alter. The standoff is between what the government
claims and their desire to usurp control and the ranchers right to continue
grazing his cattle as he and his family have apparently done for generations.
As far as I know these are the facts: The Rancher, the Clive Bundy family has
grazed their cattle on these lands for generations. The BLM (the bureau of land management) has
imposed grazing fees for those using those lands. Mr. Bundy did not want to pay fees for lands
he had been using for years and years and decided he had rights that were
grandfathered. In some ways it’s similar
to a path through the back yard of a neighbor that goes unchecked for years and
that path eventually turns into a well worn and daily used causeway for the
neighborhood. After 15 years the owner
of the property starts to impose restrictions on the users of the path. I may be wrong but I believe there is a provision
of acceptance that creates a use permit that cannot be interrupted by the land
owner if nothing was done prior to interrupt the free access of those users….
Our current government is trying to gain more control over
what was in the past an open invitation especially for people like Clive Bundy
who used the land without charge and without notice of issue or warning. After years of acceptable use the rules
changed and our government expects us to acquiesce and kneel down and pay,
giving up our rights of passage as has been accepted for generations.
For Clive Bundy, even deciding to pay the “new” fees abrogates
his rights toward land usage and places his age old practice into a new fee
structure of permission by payment. It
further degrades his standing making him subject to the new laws, taking the
old rights away.
In a similar situation our founding fathers discovered that
they were being used and the laws abused with no regard to the past. New tariffs, new taxes, more restrictions
were arbitrarily imposed upon the colonist, making their lives less predictable
and the rules of the king only benefiting the king and not the concerns of
those who worked hard to achieve success and autonomy within the colonies. They revolted, they fought and they
eventually won the right of self governess.
The Bundy issue may not be at the same scale but the
principle is the same. There is an
oppressive government flexing its muscles and wanting the citizenry to simply
acquiesce and give in. The Bundy’s and
his supporters have had enough. The streets,
the hills and canyons around his ranch were covered with private citizens, with
guns in a standoff against the BLM police who were also well armed and aiming
their assault weapons on their own citizens.
In a show of solidarity the citizens decided to advance
slowly on the BLM position, hoping they would not fire the first shot. I’m sure it was a very tense and scary
proposition to be on the front line moving toward a well armed and trained line
of officers. In the end the BLM faded
and let the people have it today, but the real fear is in the future. Our government as so constituted in this day
and age is not one to give in. Other
methods will be found to undermine the peoples stand and force them into
compliance.
Bundy and his supporters may have won this battle but the
war it seems is only just beginning.
Perhaps through taxes or late night raids Mr. Bundy will be confronted
again. Perhaps with leaked and
unsubstantiated claims or an uncovered “news” item liking him to some illicit affair
with drugs or …let your imagination wander…I don’t feel as if our government is
moral enough not to consider any alternative to bringing this issue to a
successful end in their behalf.
Most it seems have lost all faith in the promises of a
government who has consistently changed the rules of the game and failed to
support the consistent foundations of a free and stable constitution. Maybe it’s just that I watch too much TV or
read too many articles on injustice that my mind is too skewed to rationally
believe that good will prevail as long as we work hard, keep our noses clean
and obey the rules. It’s very hard to
obey the rules when those rules continue to change.
Too many legislators making rules, too many rules to follow
and too many people telling us what to do, it makes doing anything almost
impossible. You may or may not like Donald
Rumsfeld but he recently wrote an open letter to the IRS telling them that he
and his wife cannot be certain if they were in fact paying the taxes they actually
owed and blamed the complex tax code as the problem. Like Mr. Rumsfeld I consider myself to be
somewhat intelligent, that may be a character flaw but regardless of others
opinion of my mental capacity I like most others do not understand the current
tax rules and therefore have to rely upon others to file my returns.
It seems that most laws and rules are following suit,
becoming complicated and unbelievable wordy with specific requirements for some
and changes that preclude other requirements for others depending on their
race, eye color, disposition, time of day and the current cycle of some unknown
star billions of miles away. It’s time
to simplify and shorten our rules and laws so that everyone can understand.
Like Mr. Bundy we all want to be able to rely upon the promises
of the past and go forward with the faith that those rules are the same today
as they were yesterday and will continue, unchanged. But in almost every civilized society the
natural trend for government is to obfuscate, complicate, bureaucratize and
manipulate so that the few who govern can continue to govern and control. This is not a nation of the people. This is a nation of the few who use the people
to further their own political ambitions.
I may not have a herd of cattle nor followers to assist my
cause but I do understand the severity of the minutia amassed against us to
keep us from fighting in mass. We need to stand as one against the obvious tyranny
of our current leaders before they confiscate our lives in total through the
use of some new and obscure rule made just for that purpose…Fight on…
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