[Marxism] The War for the West Rages On
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * NY Times Op-Ed, Jan. 30 2016 The War for the West Rages On By BETSY GAINES QUAMMEN Bozeman, Mont. — THE armed siege of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon, which continued Friday even after one of the occupiers was killed in a confrontation with authorities, is the latest battle in a Nevada family’s war with the federal government. It shows little sign of abating. Anger over the federal government’s control of hundreds of millions of acres across the West has been smoldering for over a hundred years. The takeover was part of a campaign that has its roots in the settlement of the West and the desire to transfer control of these lands — the national forests, parks, wildlife refuges and rangeland — to the states. The Oregon confrontation was led by two sons of Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher who led an armed standoff of his own against federal authorities in 2014 over his illegal grazing on land owned by the Bureau of Land Management. Oregon Town Torn Apart by Protest at Wildlife RefugeJAN. 29, 2016 The difference between the Bundys and many other ranchers who rage over federal control of land is that they believe God is on their side. I visited the Bundy family last year on their remote ranch and melon farm in southeastern Nevada for research I’m conducting on the history of Mormon culture and the use of public land. The Bundys are Mormons and interested me because of their extreme position against the government and their engagement of militia groups in their cause. They were welcoming and eager to answer my questions. What emerged in our three hours of conversation in the living room of their modest ranch house was a passion and a sense of entitlement that they believe is anchored in their deep history in the region. They also embrace a strange amalgamation of Mormonism, libertarianism and a right-wing reading of the Constitution. The Bundys trace their roots to some of the first Mormons who settled along an isolated and rugged stretch of the Virgin River, in a place so desolate that it seems impossible to make a living there. But they did, and in doing so, they put their stamp on it, in the Bundys’ view. From the moment their ancestors’ horses took a sip of water or ate the grass, “a beneficial use of a renewable resource” was created, Cliven Bundy told me. “That’s how our rights are created,” he explained. “So now we have created them and we use them, make beneficial use of them, and then we protect them. And that’s sort of a natural law, and that’s what the rancher has done. That’s how he has his rights. And that’s what the range war, the Bundy war, is all about right now, it’s really protecting those three things: our life, liberty and our property.” In Mormon doctrine, the American Constitution is a divinely inspired text that must be protected. This view goes back to the days of the prophet Joseph Smith, who believed the Constitution existed to provide religious freedom and agency, the right of people to choose how they lived. In 1840, Smith warned that “this Nation will be on the very verge of crumbling to pieces and tumbling to the ground when the Constitution is upon the brink of ruin; this people will be the Staff upon which the Nation shall lean and they shall bear the Constitution away from the very verge of destruction.” The Bundy family sees itself as that Staff. Mr. Bundy carries in his pocket a copy of the Constitution, which he believes draws its inspiration from the Bible. He told me: “Don’t we believe that Jesus Christ is basically the author of the Bible? Well, if the Constitution is inspired, who is the author? Wouldn’t that author be Jesus Christ again?” Mr. Bundy’s reading of the Constitution has been heavily influenced by the work of W. Cleon Skousen, a Mormon, fervent anti-Communist and right-wing political thinker who believed that most federal landholdings are unconstitutional. The Los Angeles Times reported that many Bundy followers in Oregon carried with them a copy of the Constitution annotated by Skousen. “That’s where I get most of my information from,” Cliven Bundy told the paper. But while Joseph Smith focused on the First Amendment as a bulwark against the persecutions of Mormons, the Bundys are focused on the 10th Amendment, which they believe severely restricts the federal government’s power to possess land. (Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have condemned the Oregon takeover and said in a statement that they were “deeply troubled by the reports that those who have seized the facility suggest that they were doing it based on scriptural
[Marxism] The War for the West Rages On
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * I have spent a great deal of time in Utah over the past ten years or so. And in may other Western states as well. There is a great deal of federal (public) land in the West, especially in Utah. The Bundys and others of their ilk, many of them Mormons, have no real concept of land belonging to all of the people. And it seems that some here can't conceive of this either. We should all take the view that this is, as Woody Guthrie sang, our land. It must be protected by all of us, and we must demand that wildlife be protected on such land and that it must not be logged, mined, and ranched, creating a situation where those who lease such land and who pay very little for this privilege come to believe that this land is theirs. The Mormons who run Utah lock, stock, and barrel, lust to control federal lands in the state. And I can guarantee you that if they did gain control over it, they would soon enough sell or lease it to private corporations who would mine, frack, and ranch it to its dea th. Already the once clean air in southern Utah, home to five splendid and amazing national parks and several national monuments, is almost always hazy and polluted. If the state gets the land, the air, water, and soil quality will diminish beyond recognition and good luck to the animals, other than cattle. Edward Abbey, who has been mocked by certain "left liberals" who neither know nor care about these matters but who waste their days bashing Hillary Clinton and praising Bernie Sanders (neither of whom give a shit about the environment either) was always willing to stand up to the cattle interests and the state and federal policies that have subsidized them for so long. We should emulate Abbey and stand up to all of the crackpots and capitalists whose very essence wreaks havoc on Mother Nature and demand that these lands belong to all of us and must be preserved, expanded, and cared for for all time. The Bundys and all like them belong in prison. The sooner the better. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] The War for the West Rages On
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Well said! comradely Gary On Sun, Jan 31, 2016 at 3:35 AM, Michael Yates via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > POSTING RULES & NOTES > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > * > > I have spent a great deal of time in Utah over the past ten years or so. > And in may other Western states as well. There is a great deal of federal > (public) land in the West, especially in Utah. The Bundys and others of > their ilk, many of them Mormons, have no real concept of land belonging to > all of the people. And it seems that some here can't conceive of this > either. We should all take the view that this is, as Woody Guthrie sang, > our land. It must be protected by all of us, and we must demand that > wildlife be protected on such land and that it must not be logged, mined, > and ranched, creating a situation where those who lease such land and who > pay very little for this privilege come to believe that this land is > theirs. The Mormons who run Utah lock, stock, and barrel, lust to control > federal lands in the state. And I can guarantee you that if they did gain > control over it, they would soon enough sell or lease it to private > corporations who would mine, frack, and ranch it to its death. Already the > once clean air in southern Utah, home to five splendid and amazing national > parks and several national monuments, is almost always hazy and polluted. > If the state gets the land, the air, water, and soil quality will diminish > beyond recognition and good luck to the animals, other than cattle. Edward > Abbey, who has been mocked by certain "left liberals" who neither know nor > care about these matters but who waste their days bashing Hillary Clinton > and praising Bernie Sanders (neither of whom give a shit about the > environment either) was always willing to stand up to the cattle interests > and the state and federal policies that have subsidized them for so long. > We should emulate Abbey and stand up to all of the crackpots and > capitalists whose very essence wreaks havoc on Mother Nature and demand > that these lands belong to all of us and must be preserved, expanded, and > cared for for all time. The Bundys and all like them belong in prison. The > sooner the better. > _ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/gary.maclennan1%40gmail.com > _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
