What Mr Cliven Bundy the Cowboy Probably Meant to Say
It seems that what Mr Bundy meant to say is that big government and its expanded welfare society creates less freedom, fewer chances and less impetus for personal economic prosperity, and more dependence for the tens of millions of people who are roped into it, and that we might as well all be slaves if that is how life is going to be.
But, Mr Bundy is a cowboy, and so when he speaks about complex issues, it sounds like this, and it’ll make you cringe:
“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. Mr. Bundy recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, “and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do.
“And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.” (NY Times)
I’m not a Bundy apologist. Nor do I care about his personal beliefs.
I wrote an article in support of Bundy’s side during the standoff between a bunch of cowboys and militia men with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) earlier this month not because I care what prejudices Bundy holds in his heart. If he speaks that way about black people, he might also think poorly about homosexuals, have some hate for Jews, be wary of Russian influence, and I’m sure he’d wrinkle his brow at the transgender crowd. I’m just speculating here.
I supported Bundy’s cause because I’d rather support individual property rights in this case than federal land grabs under the auspices of saving an endangered tortoise, only to then hand that acquired federal land back to multinational corporations to be used as they wish. It’s called Agenda 21. Or, in politer terms, the United Nation’s plan for global sustainable development, which was officially ushered in by President Clinton in the early 90s with executive order 12852.
In light of Mr Bundy’s above comments picked up by a NY Times reporter, the question keeps getting floated, “Are you still in support of Mr Cliven Bundy?”
That question symbolizes the two-dimensional thinking that goes on in this country. Either you’re for this team, or you’re for the other. Who are you cheering for? And if you choose one, then suddenly all that team’s dirt becomes your dirt. Which is foolish. Just because Eliot Spitzer was relishing the young bodies of high class whores in New York City, I still support the man’s crusade to sheriff Wall Street and root out corruption.
A person can support a cause without being stuck to the personal issues of the cause’s most prominent men or women. That’s exactly how the media trains less perceptive members of our society. The masses read and think in two dimensions when making a sound, cognitive decision that requires three to five dimensions of thought and analysis.
Republican congresspeople who had supported Bundy during the standoff with the BLM scurried to distance themselves from him. They are cowards.
“If Mr Bundy has said something racist, then that is his business. I do not condone that. Do I still denounce millions of acres of land being pulled out from under farming and ranching families in this nation? Well, yes, I do.” That’s all the Republican supports would have to say.
As American As Apple Cow Pie
Democrat Senator from Nevada, Harry Reid, called the Bundy protesters “domestic terrorists”. There are two reasons for that. The word ‘terrorist’ has a certain chill in our society, and has been used to kill or torture or invade people and countries. So it’s possible Mr Reid could lobby for an Obama predator drone to next time take out any Bundy uprisings, or ones like it.
The other reason Senator Reid is so upset is that he and his son Rory Reid were going to give that acquired federal land over to the Chinese ENN Energy Group to develop solar and wind energy plants on that land. Cliven Bundy’s cattle were bungling up those plans.
Ironically, while grazing cattle are not suitable for solar panel clean energy plans, they are beneficial for the desert tortoise, which thrives off the small oases set up by the ranchers to be used by their cattle. The tortoise also enriches itself from the dung heaps left behind by the meandering cattle.
Cow pies are rich in nutrients, and they are as American as apple pie for the Nevada desert tortoise.
Even if Bundy announces he only loves white people, and then shouts, “White power!” and throws his fist into the air, that should not deter folks from supporting the overarching principles in the Bundy standoff. His rights are, after all, our rights, and movements by the federal government to create laws with the intent of stripping land from individuals and handing it to senators and their sons for multinational corporate interests is deplorable and dangerous.
SEE ALSO
The Bundy Standoff: A solar power plant project riding atop the shell of a desert tortoise
[photo of Desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) at the Nevada Test Site, from Wikimedia Commons]
It’s those black helicopters again…