Monday, February 04, 2013
From restless Slumbers
By Stephen L. Wilmeth
Economic loss to the state of New Mexico in 1918 due to 40-50 wolves was $960,000 in 2007 dollars. A single wolf was known to have killed 25 head of cattle in two months while another killed 150 head in six. It was this data and the desire to halt disease transmission (spread of rabies) that bounties were offered by the state of New Mexico and the federal government for the elimination of stock killing predators.
Things have certainly changed in 95 years. For the past several days, a number of meetings have taken place across southern New Mexico reviewing the federal expansion of the wolf recovery area. The number of wolves in the recovery area is just slightly larger than the numbers of 1918. Implicit in the federal stance on the recovery and the expansion is the message being telegraphed to the public. Management practices will assure there will be minimum wolf-human conflicts.
Which American government is pulling the wool over the eyes of citizenry? Is it the government that was committed to securing economic well being in a war torn world, or is it a government committed to the well being of unsuccessful genetics … in a war torn world?
Before dawn my restless night was called to a halt. Sleep was scant and the dreams disrupting it were no longer welcome. The coffee pot was started.
As I scrolled through emails, a thought passed my mind. I would record the first ten issues that I read. The results were as disconcerting as sleep had been.
Number one was a young lady who spoke of her changed perception of the Second Amendment. She had been an advocate of gun control, but study had changed her mind. She had concluded the right to bear arms had nothing to do with the right to hunt. It was the fundamental mechanism to assure sovereign individual protection against a tyrannical foe. She suggested that a protected individual equates to a sane and safer America. Her analogy was that an armed slave was not going to be a slave, would never be, and wouldn’t have been in 1860 if he had been armed against that tyrannical foe. She concluded that evil cannot be arrested through the implementation of gun control.
Bless that young lady, and let us only hope there are more like her!
Number two was the announcement by the San Diego chief of police American citizenry could be disarmed in a single generation. He was supportive of any Obama-Biden-Feinstein gun control initiative. He was positive that violence could “eventually” be reduced by disarming the citizenry.
Number three was a law enforcement alert regarding scam operations in Albuquerque. The first was the offering of key rings in mall and shopping area parking lots by advocates of certain causes. The people would have badges and identifying features that would support the appearance of a legitimate group. The unsuspecting recipient of the key ring does not know the ring has a chip embedded in it and allows the person to be tracked to his or her home.
Number four was an alert sent out by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) to the nation for environmental activists to show up and protest a meeting of southwest New Mexico county commissions in Silver City. The call to gather was predicated on defending the rights of the wolf. Note: It was known that posters had already been put up in Silver City denigrating and mocking the intelligence of the board members of the governing body. Apparently, democracy by intimidation is a very powerful tool. CBD uses it as a primary tactic.
Number five was a suit brought by Biodiversity Conservation Alliance to halt the renewal of grazing permits in the Medicine Bow National Forest. It didn’t matter that allotment holders had been there since before the depression. It mattered less that the move would destroy their already weakened businesses from repeated and similar attacks.
Number six was a tedious recapitulation of the Forest Service demanding water rights from ski operations in Colorado when those businesses seek renewals of commercial leases. Time and again the agency has been unsuccessful in such attempts of extortion, but they have the money to perpetuate the assaults while private citizenry is being drained.
Number seven was the announcement by CBD to sue for the listing of the eastern diamondback rattlesnake as an endangered species. Advice westerners can give is to make sure you know where the snakes are if they are in the cab of the pickup with you. It is a worthy practice to remain out of strike range. The announcement also reminded the group’s financial backers there were another 400 species that will also get their day in court!
Number eight was the rather humorous notice that Stanford University was going to be sued for using its private water source for irrigation purposes. It seems the good folks in Palo Alto are worried about the degradation of downstream environments if that water flow is halted … like it has been intermittently for nearly a century.
Number nine was the headline that an animal rights group sued and was successful in halting elephant rides for children in southern California. The group, Animal Defenders International, must have a plan for the out of work pachyderms. I personally hope so because penned in a jail cell is not my view of animal rights. With a hay consumption rate of at least $25 a day, it would be a safer bet the beast has a better chance of helping to secure his groceries if he was allowed gainful employment outside his cage.
Finally, number ten put a perspective on the whole process. It was the story from The Westerner that chronicled the Russian family that escaped Bolshevik tyranny before World War II and survived unassisted. By unassisted, that means they relied not on government at all, but themselves. When questioned at their enclave 150 miles from civilization, they related how their problem started with Peter the Great and then worsened with the onslaught of the atheist Bolsheviks.
They first fled to Siberia and then further west to a point near they Mongolian border. There they lived without outside assistance. They didn’t know the outcome of wars, they didn’t know that man had walked on the moon, and they were completely ignorant of vice presidential hair implants!
They lived without government handouts, rules, and regulations. As a result, they are a living example that, when left alone, free and sovereign people can survive without parasitical advocacy groups and tyrannical governments.
They are also living reminders that free and independent people can live with yet more security, affluence, and dignity … if they are part of a government that recognizes, defends, and preserves individual sovereignty as the primary condition of its existence.
Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “There is something dreadfully wrong when we spend as much time defending ourselves from our government as we do making a living and creating opportunities for our kids and communities. Each issue herein was a direct or indirect result of government.”