Curtain Coming Down on America’s Iconic Cowboy

The tragedy of Tuesday’s Oregon Malheur refuge affair is that like most other Americans, the occupiers mistakenly assume they still have freedom of movement in today’s America. They didn’t and don’t. And now a dead cowboy, barely mentioned in the Fox/Trump mainstream media saturation coverage, is the tragic result. The shooting which claimed the life of rancher LaVoy Finicum, father of 11 children and numerous grandchildren, is already being written off as a routine “traffic stop”.

“The occupation of a federal wildlife refuge near Burns, Ore., took a violent turn on Jan. 26 when a shooting unfolded during a traffic stop. One member of the armed group was killed and eight were arrested, including leaders Ammon and Ryan Bundy. (The Washington Post, Jan. 27, 2016)

“After an exchange of gunfire Tuesday that left one man dead and another injured, the two brothers who orchestrated the armed occupation of a remote central Oregon wildlife refuge were taken into custody while traveling outside the area, along with six of their followers. “Then, early Wednesday the government shut down the area, initiating what authorities called a “containment” with checkpoints and promising to arrest any unauthorized people attempting to travel into the refuge. “The purpose, according to a statement from the FBI and Oregon State Police was “to better ensure the safety of community members and law enforcement.” Earlier, they had asked people to leave the area, but there was little sign that the remaining occupiers had done so, setting up the possibility of police action later in the day.”

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Authorities on the scene long before the occupiers started out on their 100-mile trip to attend a community meeting in John Day, Ore., before being ordered to stop by the FBI and Oregon State Police about halfway to their destination, had everything on their side--timing, firearms, ammunition and the last word. Lying in wait for the ranchers on the highway, they had been waiting for them to make their first wrong move. It came at 4:25 p.m., local time on Tuesday, January 26. Some are saying that Mr. Finicum had his hands up when he was shot down--but authorities now own the narrative of the circumstances of his last moments on earth too. The tears, not of Sheriff Ward, who only yesterday pleaded with them to give up, but of the dead cowboy’s children and grandchildren will be the ones longest remembered. As long as government agencies take away the land of generation old farms and ranches, as long as they accuse their owners of owing steep fines for cattle wandering off paths to graze on GOVERNMENT grass, there will be ‘dissidents’ fighting for their rights. Even in a world where the government can take your children, your land, tax or fine you out of livelihood, seize your bank accounts, your property, impose the laws of eminent domain and tell you where you can and cannot pray; the common man, reading his Bible, will still go on hoping and searching for better days. It’s somehow wired into the human DNA of down-and-out people to stick together against all odds; for ranchers who see a brother, twice jailed for the same government-charged crime of burning his land as an injustice worth rallying for. But huge tracts of the land really no longer belong to the farmer or rancher anymore. It belongs to the government, which has been known to enlist the most determined of environmentalists to get out and reclaim it. There was a time when just like the local post office, town hall, board of education buildings, the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge was considered the possession of the taxpayers. Nowadays public buildings may be maintained by tax payer dollars but are never, in any way, their rightful property. It’s tragic that average citizens have to take into consideration that their own government might kill them. But, in fact, thinking that way gets them killed, even if it’s one at a time. Jason Patrick, who still remained at the Malheur refuge on Tuesday night, told The Post by phone, “Right now, we’re doing fine. We’re just trying to figure out how a dead cowboy equals peaceful resolution.” (Update: Jason Patrick was arrested last night) Most tragically of all in Tuesday’s shooting of Mr. Finicum is not that one more cowboy has been shot down, it’s that society is allowing the curtain to come down on the cowboy as America’s most legendary icon. Rest in peace LaVoy Finicum, you did something no BLM agent is likely to ever do, you died with your boots on.