Miller spent the week leading up to the standoff out at the Bundy Family Ranch. He was there in that wash under the I-15 bridge.
“I can tell you they were aiming there rifles at us. They did not look like any BLM range guys I have ever worked with, and I looked them eye to eye. I work with range managers around the State on a regular basis. These guys were wearing body armor, helmets, and carrying AR rifles.” Miller wrote. “I don’t know who they were or what agency they came from, but my guess is not BLM! It was the most unsettling experience of my life. Regardless I will stand on my principles and stand with my neighbors, but this is bigger than just that, this is about America and it’s future.
I was never armed, and I not in any militia.
Too Quick to condemn
We have become familiar with the Bundy Family over the past couple of weeks. Mr. Bundy does not have a PC dictionary, he does not know the term negro is offensive, he is a product of his upbringing and the times back then.
He was trying to say that living on a farm with your extended family all working together helping each other, being productive, even under the duress, abuse, and deplorable circumstances of slavery, at least they were family units. Their families may have, in some ways been better off in truly meaningful ways like solid family values, and learning solid work ethic from their fathers. They worked, prayed and lived as family units, and that is missing in many inner cites today.
It could be argued that our current system of government dependency is holding down a whole segment of our society, a form of enslaving millions of Americans, its generational, and not exclusive to black Americans, rather all races are affected by this issue. This issue of government dependency is rotting the fabric of our American society and values, Mr. Bundy referenced a couple of the nasty symptoms. He in no way intended to offend or degrade anyone. Because it is a generational dependency, these family values seem to have been lost by many. We believe Mr. Bundy thinks that is a shame.
We should all work to help restore family values, and solid work ethic. I think what he was trying to say is exactly right and it has nothing to do with race.
You had to know the media in their divide and conquer approach, would get around to trapping Mr. Bundy into a racist picture, they try to turn every issue into nasty race related disputes. Making Americans mad at Americans.
The issues at the Bundy Ranch have nothing to do with immigration or race, the issues revolve around basic fundamental rights of ALL Americans.
Mr. Bundy is not well equipped to deal with public speaking or the media and I do not believe he has a racist bone in his body. He is a good man.
Bundy’s Rights, Stand for American Rights
April 21, 2014
The Bundy’s are trying to stay in the cattle business, to preserve their way of life on the same lands their family ancestors have run cattle on for generations.
Let’s say, your business produces 10,000 of your product per month. You go to renew your business license (BLM grazing permit renewal in Bundy’s case) and they say pay your fees and by the way, you can only produce 1000 per month of your product (suspended AUMs in Bundy’s case) with this new license, reason given, some politically correct (PC) excuse. You know this will bankrupt you, so you refuse to pay fees for a permit that restricts your business so severely. You know it is going to ruin your families way of life as well as your livelihood. Would you meekly close your business, tell your whole family and employees, sorry we have no means to make a living? Walk away, without a fight, after generations have worked to build what you are now a steward of for the future family generations?
Well, not Mr. Cliven Bundy and his wife Carol, they were not having any of that approach. So they are fighting back the best way they know how.
The current national cattle herd size is as low as it as been since the 1950s. This and drought are why grocery store beef prices are rising. These facts correlate with this story and this is why it affects everyone who eats beef.
“Over time there has been a gradual decrease in the amount of grazing that takes place on BLM-managed land, and that trend continues today,” the BLM reports. “Grazing use on public lands has declined from 18.2 million AUMs in 1954 to 7.9 million AUMs in 2013. These numbers (10.3 Million less cows) have literally forced cattle ranching families out of business, bankrupting many.
They (BLM, Forest Service, Park Service working in harmony) have many excuses (tortoises, sage grouse, fly catcher, spotted owl, wild horses, etc) to eliminate grazing on our public lands. Phony, politically driven agendas by environmental groups, justifications to get the cows off the public lands, hiding behind sustainability and green energy agendas.
The Bundy’s own at least eleven Vested Water Rights to Spring and Surface Water for Stockwatering, only two lay within section 14 on his 160 deeded acres. The balance of these Stockwatering Rights are located out on the public range land, but Bundy owns the water rights and this is normal and common. Vested Water Rights are the strongest form of ownership you can own in the State of Nevada. The BLM generally requires two things from lessees, a deeded base property, and water rights to care for the livestock. Bundy has them both, all properly filed and recorded in the public records.
Yet the Bundy’s have been arrested, beaten, tazed, their women thrown down, threatened and intimidated, their cattle stolen and killed. Their personal property has been destroyed, corrals ripped apart, water tanks and lines turn out. The land was damaged severely by the BLM trucks. During the BLM cattle roundup, they showed no respect for environmental impact, they ran over and crushed tortoise dens, plants, and everything else out there with literally no regard. These Western desert landscapes heal very slowly. The Bundy’s have been called criminals, freeloaders, domestic terrorists, basically radical nuts by The Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. They have endured snipers on the hills above them with high powered rifles aimed at them, including their children.
Constitutionally both State and Federal, it appears the laws are against the Bundy’s, but the laws were against Dr. King and the others standing up for Civil Rights.
Jim Crow laws were real and they were law, but we stood up and we changed them. Those standing against segregation found themselves on the wrong side of the law, like Mr. Bundy and his family. Did they call civil rights protesters Domestic Terrorists, a very, very serious allegation given 911 and the Patriot Act. The Bundy’s believe it is time to fix wrong laws, they are asking America to stand up, to stand with them and support this effort, just as Dr. Martin Luther King did in the sixties against wrong laws. As everyone knows that was a tough fight, Dr. King was assassinated over it. But in the end the laws were changed.
Harry Reid is correct about one thing, this is not over. The protesters were given corrals to stand in with posted signs “First Amendment Area“. We were told we would be arrested if we assembled outside these areas. Americans have had more than enough of this out of control government, corruption, and lies. We will not stand for the people we employ to point weapons at us, threatening or intimidating us. We don’t allow our children to lie to us, why would we allow our President to lie to us and get away with it? There is not a smidgen of alright in the many lies and we have had it. The election this fall shall bear the fruit of National unrest and distrust. We will not live in fear of our government. We will not give up our rights. We will not stand down either. We will go about this in a civil and legal manner, just as we did during these protests. We will take our country back using the system provided to us by our founding documents. We hereby give notice, this is not over by any means. It is our Constitutional and personal responsibility.
Can you see how and why this is bigger than the Bundy Family?