The lesson should be
constantly enforced that, though the people support the government,
the government should not support the people.
(President Grover
Cleveland, while vetoing a bill offering financial aid to the poor,
1887)
Collyfoxing
By coincidence I happened to
see a YouTube video put up by Jon Ritzheimer a few weeks back, one of
the gang leaders that occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
and who is now in jail. He stood in front of a table piled high with
dozens of dildos that his detractors had sent. What struck me,
however, was the seeming bewilderment on his face as he swept them
off the table and onto the floor.
“Let us do something,
while we have the chance!”
(Samuel Beckett, Waiting
for Godot)
But, if you live in a world
of paranoia, United Nations' black helicopters invading the U.S.,
FEMA concentration camps, a dash of apocalyptic Christianity and a
distorted understanding of American history, rational thinking is
likely to be difficult. You can, nevertheless, serve as a very useful
tool for others. (The word collyfoxing is old English and means
'misleading and making a fool of one.')
If you know how it's easy
No, it's not a collection of
sociopaths, crazed zealots and the merely pathetic that are the true
problem. The real threat to our national parks, sanctuaries,
recreation programs, enforcement and sound land management throughout
the U.S. comes first and foremost from a loud and powerful segment of
the the U.S. Congress, who know quite well who they work for.
The “grand strategy” is
to starve all these programs until they collapse. It is not just
public lands in the West that are threatened but community parks in
both rural and urban areas, historic sites like Civil War
battlefields, upkeep on popular hiking trails, dealing with invasive
species and maintaining, for example, redwood forests in California
to conserve water. Appropriations have been cut in important programs
like the Land and Water Conservation Fund, popular programs allowed
to expire and funds diverted back to the oil and gas industry.
In my state of Missouri,
hardly a bastion of enlightenment at the present time, the state
legislature wants to prevent the Department of Natural Resources from
creating a new State Park that would benefit all the residents of the
state, keeping in mind that our parks in Missouri attract millions of
visitors annually, bring in an estimated billion dollars and support
some 15,000 jobs. Most important, it would protect natural resources
and be a legacy for future generations. This is an issue that is
common throughout the country.
In the West the livestock
industry, oil and gas, mining and land developers have always known
how to conjure up the cowboy fairy tales about freedom, liberty and
the “sacredness” of private property. They certainly know how to
purchase politicians at the national, state and local level. When
needed they can, of course, always find a bunch of terrorist thugs to
break windows, wave guns and yell about government overreach. It's
nothing new; they've been doing it for a long time.
To put names and faces to
some of the worst elected officials in the U.S. Congress in terms of
our national sanctuaries, wildlife and the determination to privatize
all public lands, you can probably begin with five in particular.
Collectively they have received millions of dollars in campaign
contributions from the oil and gas industry and agribusiness. They
are in the House of Representatives Ken Calvert of California, Don
Young of Alaska and Rob Bishop of Utah. In the Senate they are Mike
Lee of Utah and John Cornyn of Texas. They all happen to be
Republicans—at the moment.
So what does it all mean,
what can be done about it and who cares?
TO BE CONTINUED
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