The militia has not taken over the 187,000 acre Malheur Wildlife Refuge.
I have lived here in the high desert ranching community since Ammon Bundy was learning how to walk. I have known the Sheriff David Ward since his kids were small. They were over at my house all the time. He helped build fence on our place. His oldest son and daughter still live next door.
I have been in contact with people on the ground since before this began. Some locals brought the occupiers food the very first night of the occupation and I hear about a lot of local support. But there is a lot of irresponsible media out there saying false and foolish things, looking for conflict in order to get headlines and sometimes to promote their own agenda.
Ammon Bundy and some of the people with him are there occupying some tiny part of a huge federal wildlife refuge and have gone in some empty public buildings for shelter in order to get media attention to what they see as a serious problem.
They have already said they would be going home soon.
Was the occupation wise? That depends on what you, the people, do.
No one should be calling them “anti-government” and “aggressors” because you are just playing into the hands of provocateurs. Were they armed? Everyone in Oregon is armed especially on the East side of the Cascades. There are at least 3.4 million guns here in Oregon and only 3.8 million people. Figuring that the babies don’t have guns that is probably enough for every man from the ages of 17 to 45 to be well armed.[1] People still have a right to self defense in this state.[2]
These occupiers are protesters who are complaining about what they see as Federal government abuse by some people who work at the BLM and in the Federal government.
Anyone who reads the Hammond’s whole story[3] with an open mind can hardly say otherwise. Congressman Greg Walden spoke on the situation in Harney County, Oregon and he believes that the Federal Government employees often overreach their authority in the West. He is the government and you can hear what he has to say at our website.[4] To some this injustice and abuse is an issue, to others it is a news item, but to people who are the victims it is often their whole lives.
Just because a court says you’re guilty does not necessarily make it so. Just because a jury gave a verdict does not make it justice or mercy.[5] If you think there is an injustice taking place you should not be afraid to throw a little tea into the harbor to get the king’s attention or occupy a few empty buildings to get media attention.
In 1970 former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was a part of an armed takeover of the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) headquarters at Columbia University demanding it be renamed the “Malcolm X Lounge”.
They are also not “outsiders” unless they are from Syria or China or some other country since this is a Federal issue which they are protesting. With no Federal experience,[6] Amanda Marshall was appointed by the president to be the U.S. Attorney for Oregon. She made a rare appeal to overturn the sentence given by the original Senior Chief Judge Hogan[7] with almost 40 years experience and actually heard the testimony in the Hammond case and worked to extend it to five years. After winning this appeal, she suddenly stepped down from her job.[8]
As an accomplished attorney in several states and author of law books, my father consistently told us about corruption high up in the court system. There are good judges and attorneys, politicians and law officers and there are bad ones. And it is the people’s job to expose injustice and abuse when you see it.
The media does not take the time to find out the facts. Instead, they report the words of people like Montel Williams “put this down … shoot to kill” and Zoe Carpenter who continue to demonize these people with phrases like, “lead an armed insurrection”.
Tim Titus, a local business man, pastor and member of Harney County community actually took the time with other members of the community to go and meet with Bundy and the people occupying public buildings. Once they got passed the media camping on the road they just drove in, met with them for more than an hour and even asked to pray with them saying that they were “more than willing and hats came off all around the room.”[9]
That may have been a crime in the eyes of some people. After all, praying in a public place is not considered legal anymore by some people and courts today.
Terry Lynn Barton, a forest service employee, pleaded guilty to arson charges stemming from the 2002 Hayman Fire which was the worst wildfire in Colorado’s recorded history, blackened 138,000 acres, destroyed 133 homes and forced more than 8,000 people to evacuate. But she only did six-year term in prison. The Hammonds are going to have to do 10 years, pay $400,000 dollars and the government has demanded the right to buy their ranch if they go bankrupt or have to sell. The BLM simply stipulated a 400,00 dollar fine despite the fact that a conservation agent and a Fire Specialist, Roy Hogue, had both testified there was no damage from the fire but that the “land productivity had improved; no fire suppression or rehabilitation costs existed.” Read more:[10]
So why this huge fine?
Why the drive for such an abusive sentence?
To force the Hammonds to sell their home, business and land to the government. Hundreds of ranchers have already lost their homes, land and livelihood. Hundreds more all over the west not only see the danger coming but are openly threatened. Americans need to take the time to find out the whole truth.
These are men that love government, just government. They have taken the time to study the Constitution because they see their neighbors abused by the new George the III. Who is that you ask?
Justice William O. Douglas wrote, “We must realize that today’s Establishment is the new George III. Whether it will continue to adhere to his tactics, we do not know. If it does, the redress, honored in tradition, is also revolution… the truth is that the vast bureaucracy now runs this country, irrespective of what party is in power.”[11]
Those in position of power have been getting away with this corruption for a long time and the corruption goes farther up. Few people would even know about this case if not for people occupying the refuge.[12] Ultimately these people occupying these tiny distant public buildings in protest of a long string of injustices are looking for refuge from what they see as abuse of their neighbor. They know they are not going to get it with an armed protest and occupying a few buildings out on the desert. They want Americans to wake up and start caring about justice and mercy for one another.
They may or may not be entirely right but they are risking their lives to get your attention. What they are doing is dangerous but if the people of Harney County and Oregon and America will peaceably support their call for justice and mercy good may yet come. There is movement.
2016 shall be a notable year.[13] We need to be wise and call upon the character of the Lord. We should be patient and not aggressive against those who stand up first for justice and mercy.
Certainly there may be provocateurs among us but that is all the more reason to reach out like Tim Titus and other brave people who are coming together to seek a peaceable settlement and a just conclusion for all.[14]
We know what is going on outside and inside The Occupy Refuge Movement.[15] But more than that we know where the real solution can be found.
Unfortunately many people who want to know the truth do not want to know the whole truth and provide for it.
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Footnotes:
1. Who is the Malitia
2. DO CHRISTIANS HAVE A RIGHT TO SELF DEFENSE? PART 1
3. Hammond
4. Greg Walden addresses U.S. House on situation in Harney County, OR, federal overreach in the West Time 24:19
5. Weightier matters
6. She had been a part of “child advocacy” for the Oregon Department of Justice and deputy district attorney in Coos County but no prior experience in the federal system.
7. Michael Robert Hogan had been a distict court judge since 1973 served as chief judge from 1995 to 2002, and took senior status on September 24, 2011. He then retired the day he sentenced the Hamonds.
8. She was under investigation by Office of Inspector General. But claimed health reasons.
9.The Occupy Refuge Movement Tim Titus visits Occupy Movement
10. Hammond
11. Justice William O. Douglas, in his book Points of Rebellion, 1969 (page 95, page 54).
12. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: The Declaration of Independence
13. “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:” Acts 2:20
14. John 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
15. The Occupy Refuge Movement
