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The United States founding fathers attached a very unique document to the U.S. Constitution. The Bill of Rights very distinctly outlines individual rights, one by one. Some Americans prefer to think of the 10 amendments as the Bill of Limitations because they limit the U.S. government in how far it can go with people control. The last one states very clearly that the government can't do anything without consent of the governed. In other words, the government has no rights except for the ones the citizens choose to delegate for a specific purpose. That Constitution was written in such a way as to keep the government tethered on a short leash and America free for over 200 years. Individuals enjoy God-given rights which no government nor person can take away or tamper with: the right to defend self, family and property; the right to own property; and freedoms of religion, speech, peaceful assembly and of the press. Both the United States and Canada were built on those fundamental rights. Our English forefathers demanded them to be written down in 1215 and forced King John to sign the Magna Carta which obligated the government to stop interfering with people's liberties and pursuit of happiness. "Butt out," we would say in modern vernacular. But freedoms are fragile. They are all cross-wired. Unless freedom is cared about, cared for, nurtured and guarded jealously, each and every right will die. Government would simply choose not to recognize God-given rights and the people would be enslaved. Today, the federal governments in both the United States and Canada have been infiltrated by bureaucrats who practice a doctrine called collectivism, or Marxist-Leninism. They promote a One-World Order in which all countries will relinquish respective sovereignties, constitutions, currencies and religions to one size fits all. Why would anybody be such an ingrate as to allow freedom to be seized, knowing our ancestors fought and died preserving it? At Blue Licks, for instance, the scene of what is known as "The Last Battle of the American Revolution", the Kentuckians were badly battered, so outnumbered were they by the British and Indians. Without knowing if reinforcements were coming, the small contingent regrouped. The legendary Daniel Boone knew the enemy and Major Hugh McGary was fearless, and maybe a bit foolish. He spurred his horse into the Licking River, yelling, "All who are not cowards, follow me!" They all crossed--some riding double. They drew up in battle formation on the other side. There was a lot of blood shed at the Blue Licks battle ground where the Kentuckians heroically turned a defeat into a victory. The price was high to defend freedom and independence. Boone himself lost a son. But, from then until the happy return of peace between the United States and Great Britain, nobody did the pioneers any mischief. Another example of early frontiersmen defending freedom was the conflict that broke out in Texas. The story goes that Davy Crockett led a band of frontiersmen to fight in the battle of the Alamo in 1836. The Texans were alleged to have asked why Crockett and his men rode a thousand miles to fight a fight that wasn't their fight. Crockett supposedly replied: "We've made it our fight. If freedom dies in Texas it will only be a matter of time before freedom is lost in Tennessee"...or Kentucky or Virginia, or wherever. Crockett perished at the Alamo. Fast forward to the present. If freedom can be destroyed in Zimbabwe or South Africa or Canada, then freedom certainly can be destroyed in the United States, too. And there are a lot of radical forces bent on destroying the last bastion of freedom. Big government has lost sight of serving the people. It has become an insatiable chimera that is gobbling personal rights. To preserve those freedoms and independence, those rights must be defended at any cost. One killer of freedom is the Endangered Species Act. Innocent people go to jail and pay $200,000 fines for trying to defend themselves, families, land and livestock against this irrational law. One notable incident happened on April 6, 2001. Klamath farmers clashed with the federal authorities at Klamath Basin, along the Oregon-California border. Federal agencies denied farmers their 96-year-old rights to irrigation water. The action was based on a last minute decision of the socialist Clinton administration. A court ruling by the controversial federal judge Ann Aiken upheld the Bureau of Reclamation's interpretation of the Endangered Species Act, which gave the water to bottom-feeding suckers instead of Klamath Basin farmers. Shutting off irrigation water during a drought was the death knell for the region's economy. Farmers were forced to start selling cattle, leave their pastures and hay fields to go brown, and give up annual planting of potatoes, grain and other crops that required a large quota of water. In a huge quandary was Interior Secretary Gale Norton, a strong proponent of property rights, as is her Republican boss, President George W. Bush. But he didn't have the Congressional clout to axe the Endangered Species Act. The Bush administration threw a paltry amount of federal relief money at angry, frustrated farmers. The socialist-style action wasn't the answer. Farmers needed water. Otherwise, the land would be worthless and banks wouldn't authorize loans without secure collateral. An acre worth $2,500 US one day was devalued overnight to about $35 US. Eventually, land owners would be forced to forfeit land for taxes. Green groups, like Nature Conservancy, were waiting in the wings to snap up the land for a song and re-sell it to the federal government for a mint. Yet farmers' water rights dated back to 1905. Water was promised through settlement agreements, as was promised to the Klamath Indian Tribe downstream through treaties. It was the farmers' own government that gave the incentives, especially to veterans of both world wears, to settle in the Klamath region. The government offered free irrigation water to help farmers cultivate a veritable breadbasket. The convenant worked well for many decades. But the government is a headless, faceless, brainless body with two hands: one giveth while the other taketh away. By denying water, the federal government effectively stole the land back and issued a death warrant to the farmers and the surrounding communities. The water rights ended up belonging to two wildlife refuges, located on a portion of the lakes for migrating birds and the fish. he only people happy about the decision to shut off the farmers' water supply was the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund (founded in 1971 as the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund). The Earthjustice launched a lawsuit. The selfish greens dismissed the farmers as insignificant. To their way of thinking, the food products that graced supermarket shelves to feed local people was "low-value". The Endangered Species Act gave authority to the federal government to legally withhold water from people in order to protect a few sucker fish in Upper Klamath Lake and coho salmon in the Klamath River. Since fish can survive in a lot less water than what is required for farm crops, the water could have been shared. And the court had the legal capacity to provide relief to the land owners through a special provision of the act. The court didn't do that, though. "The court decision to grant fish more rights than those who have worked the land and paid their taxes is an attack on sanity itself," admonished Tom DeWeese of the Virginia-based American Policy Centre. It lacks all rationality, he added. "It is an attack on those farmers, but it is also yet another example of the way radical environmentalists continue to attack the most essential elements of the West's economic life. "It is ultimately an attack on every American's property rights because ownership of any land anywhere can be destroyed by simply asserting that an endangered species exists on it or may at some time use it." The Klamath Basin clash was about a bunch of politicians who didn't give a whit about the ultimate consequences on human lives. It's hard to fathom that politicians elected to serve people did not have a contingency plan in place to offset nature's inconsistencies in case 1,400 farmers faced water shortages during record dry years on land that spread over 240,000 acres. The out-going Clinton administration gave the water to the fish by seizing water from the farmers which was less risky than assaulting the Indians, who also felt betrayed. When 8,000 protesters gathered in the Klamath Basin on May 7, 2001, one would assume it would be newsworthy. Oddly, there was basically not a peep from the media. Then, on Independence Day, a smaller group took the law into their own hands. Armed with a diamond-blade chain saw and a cutting torch they reopened the head gate that had been welded shut by the government. Water from Upper Klamath Lake gushed back into an irrigation canal to provide a drink for 90 per cent of the thirsty land. No state or local laws were violated. So, the Klamath Falls police and county deputy sheriffs stood around watching for four hours. Then the Bureau of Reclamation, the federal agency that controls the irrigation system, called in armed U.S. Marshals to enforce the endangered species law while reclamation agents shut off the tap. This was a "life and death" matter. Farmers weren't going to let their crops wither and livestock die. As long as they owned diamond-blade chain saw, they would keep taking all their water entitlements and dare anybody try to stop them. The farmers re-opened the gate twice in one week. The government finally got the message. Farmers were resolved to fight to the finish before accepting eviction notices that were being handed out indiscriminately to land owners all over the western and northern United States and Canada. In late July, Interior Secretary Norton tried to assuage tempers with the promise of a trickle (about 15 per cent) of their usual annual water allotment, while appeasing members of the Green Club. Through the endangered Species Act, ruthless environmentalists were able to carry out this unconscionable economic cleansing. Their goal was never to protect nature. It was to force humans from the farms and lock up all the land into "no use" zones. Their evil deeds played havoc with local businesses. School enrollment dwindled and populations decreased. The greens wanted industry dismantled and rural and northern communities turned into ghost towns. They wanted to re-wild the landscape to a natural condition reminiscent of before Christopher Columbus landed. This is what happens when the government is allowed to become too powerful and is in bed with specialty groups, especially loopy eco-Nazis. Do you value your home? Your liberty? Your God-given rights to pursue happiness in your own fashion? Provide for your family and plan for the future? The eco-Nazis is a highly dangerous and powerful force, in the process of taking away all those amenities and securities. The Klamath clash leaves no doubt that these Marxist-Leninists want independent thinkers dead. The battle over water rights continues. But those farm families made a difference when they struck back valiantly against oppression and injustice. The small skirmish was very important in showing the U.S. government and the elected politicians that freedom-loving Americans aren't going to give up their precious, hard-won rights without another revolution. Keep pushing. As Thomas Jefferson said, "A little rebellion now and then is a good thing." The founding father had great faith that whenever government gets so far out of whack as to attract people's notice, they can always be relied on to set things straight. -- 30 -- Copyright 2004 diArmani.com |