sonora2sonoma

The Wild West may still be happening

in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge

or at least a watered-down version of it.

 

News reports of men with guns

expressing their displeasure

with the Federal Government

by making a statement

via armed occupation

while relying on that self-same government

in the guise of the Post Office

for the delivery of snacks and sox

which, had they made provision for beforehand,

they would not have had to muddy up their message

so.

 

And the message?

taking back the land

for the people.

Begs the question, one might ask,

to which “people” are they referring?

The people from whom they wish to reclaim the land in question

are you and me and, yes,

even the occupiers themselves,

which is to say, being federal land,

the taxpayers.

 

Why would these occupying forces

wish to reclaim land

they already own?

 

So, it isn’t really about reclaiming the land

is it?

If not that, then what?

What drives these men

with their pickups and their guns

to go camping in the dead of winter

without any snacks

or extra socks?

 

To reclaim the land for the “people”

makes no sense

when the people already own

the land.

 

And what is so important

about their dubious quest

as to drive them to threaten an armed confrontation?

To engage in a game of chicken

with forces that could pluck their feathers with ease

were they inclined to do so.

 

The leader of this group

claims the refuge

constitutes an “unconstitutional presence”

in the country.

One wonders

where he gets his information.

Certainly not from a civics class!

 

One might assume they are in earnest

in choosing to forego snacks

and sox

in the hope that their logically challenged enterprise

might prevail.

 

One might also assume

the armed campers

seek to return the land to the “right” people

so that the wrong ones

can be designated as trespassers.

 

And one might reasonably assume

that their game of chicken

will, in the end,

cause them to be forced to eat crow.

 

Which, since they chose to enact their ill-fated drama

in a bird sanctuary

may not be an entirely inappropriate

outcome.

 

07 January, 2016

Tim Konrad