01-20-2016, 01:28 PM
The situation is not complicated and that opinion piece you posted spells out exactly what we already know.
Some ranchers want things to be like they were 100 years ago. Most of them realize that times change, though nobody really likes it that our taxes and costs of doing business rise.
Cliven Bundy and his sons are criminals, that's a fact that doesn't become any less true because some like-minded people view them as 'heroes'. They break the law by evading taxes, pointing loaded firearms at law enforcement, and stealing other people's property. They do so for their own gain and because they think they're entitled, partially due to their faith and their family history. They are criminals.
I have no issues with anyone protesting the government land management or anything else, in urban or rural locales. Freedom of speech and public assembly -- I'm a big fan. I do have a problem with people committing crimes that threaten others, and I hope Cliven, Ammon, and Ryan Bundy face consequences (as the writer of the OP opinion piece predicts they will).
Some ranchers want things to be like they were 100 years ago. Most of them realize that times change, though nobody really likes it that our taxes and costs of doing business rise.
Cliven Bundy and his sons are criminals, that's a fact that doesn't become any less true because some like-minded people view them as 'heroes'. They break the law by evading taxes, pointing loaded firearms at law enforcement, and stealing other people's property. They do so for their own gain and because they think they're entitled, partially due to their faith and their family history. They are criminals.
I have no issues with anyone protesting the government land management or anything else, in urban or rural locales. Freedom of speech and public assembly -- I'm a big fan. I do have a problem with people committing crimes that threaten others, and I hope Cliven, Ammon, and Ryan Bundy face consequences (as the writer of the OP opinion piece predicts they will).