Dateline Oregon… Eugene
Arrived Monday via Amtrak today is Friday tomorrow return to Bay Area, home.
I am going to talk about the big events in Oregon (besides my own journey) the last few days that greeted me on Monday. On the front page of NY Times no less.
What the?!
Arrived Monday via Amtrak today is Friday tomorrow return to Bay Area, home.
I am going to talk about the big events in Oregon (besides my own journey) the last few days that greeted me on Monday. On the front page of NY Times no less.
What the?!
So read the article, got a sense of the drama. Duly noted that the Bundy clan were the same people who I had read about before. From down in Nevada, a militant ranching family, who grazed a lot of cattle on Public Lands, the government found that there was so much cattle
that some areas of land were being stripped of their native vegetation etc. Basically ruining the EcoSystem at least in some places, then I believe their was an issue of paying the Feds for the use of Public Lands. Anyways the notion of returning the land to the People is high on the Bundy’s sense of mission. The people who would be getting this land would be miners, ranchers and loggers… I don’t know about nature lovers who live far away. I don’t know if we have our claim particularly recognized nor whether the Bundy’s and others feel we have any right to a claim. Then there are the Native Americans who have said Hey! This was our land.
But to set the stage for all this to frame this properly, The Bundy people maybe as much outsiders as I am and the folks back in the SF Bay Area and throughout the rest of the US looking in.
In protest of the imprisonment of two Harney County ranchers locals marched and sympathizers rallied. If I was in the neighborhood I would have definitely joined in the peaceful protest. The front page NY Times article on Monday did speak of the fact that Dwight Hammond, Jr. 73 and his son Steven 46 had peacefully turned themselves in after serving sentences for arson on BLM lands. Sentences of 4 months and 1 year respectively though I may have that wrong as now I have no internet connection and Monday’s Times is missing to refer too. Still I’ll share some local Oregon reporting.
Sheriff Ward: ‘It takes only one unstable person person to show up with a skewed belief window to create something that can’t be taken back’
Ward said normalcy would return overnight if the two dozen or so militants gave up their occupation of the refuge, which is about 30 miles southeast of Burns. Police have not cordoned off the refuge or taken any other steps against the occupiers, such as cutting off electricity to the compound.
‘It’s very much in their court on being able to walk away from this.’ he said. He called again on the militants to return to their homes and not engage in a standoff with police or “something ridiculous”
Sheriff Ward has scheduled community meeting for Wednesday Afternoon at the Harney County Fairgrounds. He wants to confront rumours, provide information and take questions. He said people are upset about the occupation and want it over.
In this same Wednesday January 6th issue of the Oregonian in a different article..
‘Silently Bundy approached microphones at the snow covered roadway at the refuge.
Bundy said the group will leave only if “the community” signals that the protestors no longer are welcome. Despite the sheriff’s statements and a general sense of unease among
townspeople and ranchers alike, militant leaders said so far that they haven’t received that signal.
Thursday January 7th… The Oregonian reporter Les Zaitz
Burns —- Cowboys, mothers, retirees and dozens more from Harney County offered support Wednesday for the anti-government message offered by militants occupying a federal compound outside of town.
But they still asked the protestors to leave.
One speaker after another among the hundreds gathered for a community meeting said it was time to talk the way to a solution. When a rancher volunteered to accompany the sheriff to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, others shouted their willingness to go as well.
Merlin Rupp who has lived in the county 70 years, said he also went to the refuge to see what was happening ’They ain’t hurting a damn thing down there,’ he said though he added it was time for the militants to go home.
As the meeting wrapped up nearly two hours later, someone asked the sheriff if the militants could go without being arrested. “They are welcome to leave, and I’ll escort them out of the county’ Ward said.
........
That’s the sheriff of Harney County, what the FBI and the Attorney General have in mind is a different story. I hope that the Feds have listened in and maybe have the ability to recognize some legitimate voices of America are mixed with the Yahoos and the Yahoos might make some points that are worthy to consider too.
As for Dwight Hammond 73 and his son Steven who peacefully surrendered to Federal Custody. Now in a Federal Prison in California. The injustice that they are facing should fire up every American. How can you be sentenced in a court of law to a set punishment, fulfill your time and after release be ordered back? Their time served didn’t satisfy the Federal Government. Apparently and I don’t have the article or the internet connection, yet to give all the details but from what I have read and was told was that the Judge who originally sentenced them ignored Federal Mandates because he felt they were egregiously out of line with the nature of the crime. The fires set, the ‘Arson’ were started on the Hammonds own property in one case to protect, as a backfire against a threatening wildfire their own store of Winter Wheat that feeds their cattle. Some of the fire escaped their property and burned a few acres of BLM land. Apparently there is a connection between September 11, 2001 and Bush’s war on terror and I would add the Obama war on terror to the Hammond’s plight. As Federal Mandates view more and more of any crime as ‘Terrorists’ the people are in for more trouble from a Government that just has gotten so top-heavy and grassroots lost that it can make trouble for itself and us as a natural course of blundering.
Questions: Who was the original Judge who defied the Federal Mandate charges and sentenced the Hammond’s to a light not unreasonable sentence? If the Federal government
feels Justice was not served by the Judges decision why not punish the Judge and have they done so yet? I am not advocating he be punished. I’d rather he be promoted.
What about the burgeoning American Prison population and listening to the soft words of Ms Attorney General Loretta Lynch on CNN just a few days talking about how the Federal Government needed to rethink Prison sentencing guidelines. Hello MS Lynch? Are you there?
Thursday January 7th… The Oregonian reporter Les Zaitz
Burns —- Cowboys, mothers, retirees and dozens more from Harney County offered support Wednesday for the anti-government message offered by militants occupying a federal compound outside of town.
But they still asked the protestors to leave.
One speaker after another among the hundreds gathered for a community meeting said it was time to talk the way to a solution. When a rancher volunteered to accompany the sheriff to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, others shouted their willingness to go as well.
Merlin Rupp who has lived in the county 70 years, said he also went to the refuge to see what was happening ’They ain’t hurting a damn thing down there,’ he said though he added it was time for the militants to go home.
As the meeting wrapped up nearly two hours later, someone asked the sheriff if the militants could go without being arrested. “They are welcome to leave, and I’ll escort them out of the county’ Ward said.
........
That’s the sheriff of Harney County, what the FBI and the Attorney General have in mind is a different story. I hope that the Feds have listened in and maybe have the ability to recognize some legitimate voices of America are mixed with the Yahoos and the Yahoos might make some points that are worthy to consider too.
As for Dwight Hammond 73 and his son Steven who peacefully surrendered to Federal Custody. Now in a Federal Prison in California. The injustice that they are facing should fire up every American. How can you be sentenced in a court of law to a set punishment, fulfill your time and after release be ordered back? Their time served didn’t satisfy the Federal Government. Apparently and I don’t have the article or the internet connection, yet to give all the details but from what I have read and was told was that the Judge who originally sentenced them ignored Federal Mandates because he felt they were egregiously out of line with the nature of the crime. The fires set, the ‘Arson’ were started on the Hammonds own property in one case to protect, as a backfire against a threatening wildfire their own store of Winter Wheat that feeds their cattle. Some of the fire escaped their property and burned a few acres of BLM land. Apparently there is a connection between September 11, 2001 and Bush’s war on terror and I would add the Obama war on terror to the Hammond’s plight. As Federal Mandates view more and more of any crime as ‘Terrorists’ the people are in for more trouble from a Government that just has gotten so top-heavy and grassroots lost that it can make trouble for itself and us as a natural course of blundering.
Questions: Who was the original Judge who defied the Federal Mandate charges and sentenced the Hammond’s to a light not unreasonable sentence? If the Federal government
feels Justice was not served by the Judges decision why not punish the Judge and have they done so yet? I am not advocating he be punished. I’d rather he be promoted.
What about the burgeoning American Prison population and listening to the soft words of Ms Attorney General Loretta Lynch on CNN just a few days talking about how the Federal Government needed to rethink Prison sentencing guidelines. Hello MS Lynch? Are you there?
Have you read a little of the story here in Oregon?
I visited a friend in Portland yesterday who wouldn’t be described as Conservative. He tells me he is OK with all the Feds do, except for the out of control Military. I wish people would question a little more what free rein we give to our ‘progressive’ Democrat administrations to carry out their foolish plans as well as Foolish Republicans.. Equal skepticism for all.
As for the militias Maybe they have already packed up this morning and are moving out. That would be my hope along with just about everybody else’s hope.
I visited a friend in Portland yesterday who wouldn’t be described as Conservative. He tells me he is OK with all the Feds do, except for the out of control Military. I wish people would question a little more what free rein we give to our ‘progressive’ Democrat administrations to carry out their foolish plans as well as Foolish Republicans.. Equal skepticism for all.
As for the militias Maybe they have already packed up this morning and are moving out. That would be my hope along with just about everybody else’s hope.
Cheers to the American People and the people of Harney County. Freedom isn’t free. You got to stand up when it’s threatened, But Freedom to take all that you want doesn’t work either. You can’t destroy our lands and us treehuggers wherever we are, we have a voice. We want a beautiful America where there are Nature Preserves all over.
Democracy is not over in this country and a just government of the people by the people for the people is what we have to act for live for. As a visiting environmental lawyer from Kenya told me on the way up from California on Amtrak. ‘The government is the custodian of our Natural Resources.’ ‘The government holds natural resources in trust on behalf of the people.’ The Government is us, like Sheriff Ward in Harney County we have got to do it right on behalf of the people who we serve whether they be Ranchers, Wilderness People, City People and all the wildlife systems that make this a beautiful planet to still live and thrive on.
Hope the peaceful solution comes along soon..
Democracy is not over in this country and a just government of the people by the people for the people is what we have to act for live for. As a visiting environmental lawyer from Kenya told me on the way up from California on Amtrak. ‘The government is the custodian of our Natural Resources.’ ‘The government holds natural resources in trust on behalf of the people.’ The Government is us, like Sheriff Ward in Harney County we have got to do it right on behalf of the people who we serve whether they be Ranchers, Wilderness People, City People and all the wildlife systems that make this a beautiful planet to still live and thrive on.
Hope the peaceful solution comes along soon..
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