When in the Course of Human Events....

Today I've had the opportunity to spend roughly 10 hours on a piece of equipment and have contemplated the more recent developments in the relationship between the BLM/Forest Service/Federal Government and the citizens of San Juan County. As the title might indicate my mind has been brought to bear on the Declaration of Independence. That is the approach I will take with this post.

"But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security." Now I know what you may be thinking, " Kendall has lost his mind and has turned into some fanatic." Well, that might be so but lets look at the situation and then I'll let you decide what the writers of the Declaration would say about the events.

Before I delve into this let me first establish that I am not saying who is guilty or who is being falsely accused. Quite frankly I don't care if the men who were rounded up yesterday are guilty as charged or not. What I do care about, as will shortly be evident, is the complete disregard on the part of the Federal government and her ghestapo-like henchmen of the BLM, Forest Service, and National Park Service of meaning of 'citizen' when dealing with the people of the rural West. Please feel free to comment.

I will assume that anyone reading this is familiar with the raids that took place in the 4 corners area yesterday morning and with the sad developments of today dealing with yesterday's raids. If you are not familiar with what I am talking about then check out any of Utah's major news websites. I am not disputing the fact that what these people are ACCUSED of is a crime (although I think it is ludicrous, it is still considered a crime) but what I do dispute is the necesity of putting thousands of man hours over the course of several years into an investigation to appreahend such "HEINOUS CRIMINALS" as those who dig indian ruins. Many will argue that they are stealing America's cultural artifacts, others might argue that they are stealing 'tribal property' and to both I say BS. Who's tribe do these artifacts belong to? Last time I checked the Anasazi's have been dead and gone in their entirety for nearly a thousand years. If in fact some tribe does have ownership of these 'artifacts' then I want them to know my family is going to charge them rent not only in the future but also an insanely high back fee for storing all of their left over dishes and discarded weapons and clothing for the past 80 years. Feel free to contact me if these articles are the property of your tribe and make sure you give me an address to send the bill. As to the argument that these people are 'stealing America's heritage' I say, "atleast these people have the ambition to go dig this junk up so we can know more about these lost civilizations!"

All arguments aside the fact of the matter is that the FBI and their fellow goons raided homes and arrested people yesterday to close a several year investigation. How much money was spent on this investigation? How many Border Patrol agents could we have trained for that much money? How many DEA agents and drug dogs could we have trained for that much money? How many terrorists could we have waterboarded with that much money? In the world we live in are there not more important things for the government to be doing to protect us? In the quote from the Declaration that I already used it says that when the government stops providing for our future security it is our RIGHT to find a new guard for our future.

I found several aspects of the press conference held by the government yestarday to be quite interesting. Mr Salazar (who I think is about as worthless as worthless gets) said (quoted straight from CNN.com), "Let this case serve notice to anyone who is considering breaking these laws and trampling our nation's cultural heritage that the BLM [Bureau of Land Management], the Department of Justice and the federal government will track you down and bring you to justice," There you have it, yesterday's raids on American citizens were nothing more than terror tactics brought to you courtesy of our own government that should be protecting us from foreign and domestic dangers not from pot hunters! When a government starts allowing its people to be terrorised in order to 'prove a point' then that government is no longer functioning as James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and the like set it up, but rather as Hitler and Stalin set up their respective 'governments.'

The other part of the press conference I found to be quite disturbing was the fact that all of the officials were flaunting the fact that they had the Redds again. The attitude was that of "well we were too sloppy with out case on them ten years ago so we came back at them and got them this time and regardless of what the truth is we WILL convict them." Thats not the way the legal process was designed to work but alas the government we are governed by today is not the organization that Hamilton so nobley defended in the Federalist Papers either.

Basically what I'm getting at is that yesterdays raids that resulted in 24 people being arrested and lives being broken and ruined forever was nothing more than terroristic scare tactics by a government that would rather have the citizens of this part of the world be evicted so they could turn the 4 corners into a play ground. The government that was founded to save us and provide safety to us against the tyranny, oppression and despotism of England has, over time, BECOME that very institution it was developed to deter. Once again I am not saying anyone is guilty or innocent but what I am saying is that this is a poor use of our limited funds and law enforcement resources and that if Mr. Salazar wanted to 'send a message' he did a fine job of it. Message sent AND recieved, you don't want us here and thats fine cause we don't want YOU here either! You keep taking our land and our ways of enjoying it, we know you will, but stop fighting our desire to have freedom in our own land with trumped up charges and ridiculous laws!

In closing I just want to tie the complaints back in with the Declaration of Independance. What do you think? Are James Madison and Thomas Jefferson rolling over in their graves? You bet they are!

Rifles for Watie

What would summer be without getting a chance to read a good book? In my opinion it wouldn't be a fulfilled summer without reading at least one great book so the past couple days I decided to read a book I hadn't read since before my mission. Before I could read it I had to find it. I ended up crawling all over in the attic digging through all the boxes I had packed up with all the stuff I'd accumulated over the first 19 years of my life in order to find this amazing book. Once I finally found it (in the last box left in the attic of course) I realized just how many times I had read it growing up since the number was recorded with tally marks on the inside cover of the book, 12 times before the mission. After being read that many times its not wonder that pages 184- 213 are completely free of the binding and fall out anytime you casually pick the book up. Also the cover is so worn you can barely read the back of the book to know what the story is about, lucky for me I don't need to read the synopses to know what Rifles for Watie is about!

Anyways, after having read a book that many times you'd think it would be hard to get 'into' the story but the 13th time around was the best yet. I stayed up really late last night (early this morning) to finish the book because I didn't want to put it down and sleep! Maybe I'm just crazy but I think anyone who enjoys historical fiction would be the same way with this book.

Rifles for Watie and I met when I was in the 5th grade and my teacher, Mr Bayles, read it to our class. For anyone interested in a pretty easy but very enjoyable story of a young boy who joins the Kansas Volunteers of the Union Army at the start of the Civil war and ends up being and infantryman, a Cavalry man and eventual a Union scout/spy and in the process of being out on scout for the Union is enlisted into the Confederate Army and serves under Colonel Stand Watie in his Cherokee Mounted Rifles for 18 months before making a harrowing 125 mile escape back to Union lines with the whole confederate army after him, I highly encourage you to look into Rifles for Watie. Oh and did I mention that I have a huge crush on Miss Lucy Washbourne? You'll have to read the book to understand but just remember, I already spoke for her!