Franklin Graham assists end of Oregon rancher protest

When Occupy Wall Street overran city blocks, trashing private property and businesses, ravaging women and screaming to obtain government subsidies, authorities turned a blind eye. But when protesters arrived at Malheur Wildlife Refuge January 2, 2016, to focus attention on ranchers jailed as terrorists for protecting their property from Bureau of Land Management mismanagement, media and government treated them as desperados. The first group destroys private property and tramples individual rights yet is allowed to disperse and go on their merry way continuing to devastate others’ livelihood. The second group, whittled down to four individuals quietly camped on the grounds of the refuge, attempted to keep a light on government violation of property rights.

Who are the real scofflaws? The OWS, and BlackLivesMatter, who willfully obliterated and looted businesses without consequence? Or the ranchers and their supporters who, threatening no one, moved into an empty building to address government transgression? If you sided with the freeloading OWS and BLM (this includes both the government agency and the racist movement) destroying property over freedom-loving individuals standing to protect property rights, then our nation has failed. Our country was founded on the inspired recognition of God-given individual rights, which feudal powers had thwarted for time immemorial. The documents that established the United States of America clearly articulated the nature of these unalienable rights in our person and property. Not two hundred years after the establishment of the nation, those rights had been winnowed to regulated usage of what citizens owned, virtually disenfranchising them of everything from their dogs to their homes, and in this case, the feeding of their cattle to provide meat for all of us. What 25,000 of us just witnessed live through the internet (and close to 80,000 listened Wednesday night) was the level to which government will stoop to make nonviolent demonstrators fear for their very lives.

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FBI’s shooting death of LaVoy Finicum in an ambush setting on a lonely, cell-silent piece of road in Eastern Oregon

On the heels of the FBI’s shooting death of LaVoy Finicum in an ambush setting on a lonely, cell-silent piece of road in Eastern Oregon two weeks ago, four lone protesters continued a vigil on the refuge, hoping their presence would keep the grazing and property rights issue before the public. They had no ill intent toward federal agents nor were they promoting lawlessness, at least not on their part. They were, however, spotlighting the flagrant lawlessness of federal agencies in limiting and revoking grazing rights of ranchers on public lands. The byword here is “public.” The term was always to be defined as owned by the People of this nation. No longer does it carry that meaning. Instead “public” has been corrupted to mean owned by the government. For those who still believe that the two are interchangeable, a review of what government has become is required – an entity by and for itself, producing nothing but reaping everything – as opposed to its true, initial function, that of serving the People who constituted it. The four remaining demonstrators, camping in a remote area on the refuge, were surrounded by armed FBI agents Wednesday, February 10, 2016. The siege’s purpose was to arrest these individuals for having used public lands as owners might, being representative of the public, for their gain or enjoyment. They were no threat to society nor had they destroyed public property. What they did do was have the audacity to not just speak up about government mismanagement of public lands, but to have a physical presence to make their point. They didn’t burn or destroy the premises (which the BLM does on a regular basis, illegally setting backfires, or OWS and the other BLM did in their violent protests), nor did they interfere with any individuals’ rights of travel or property. In fact, it was the inappropriate use of armed officers that closed down the refuge and blocked the roads, creating a hazard. The climax of this whole, avoidable FBI-induced standoff was the young man, David Fry, who feared the FBI’s lack of integrity, knowing how one forced confrontation had ended with a good man’s death. Anyone listening to the live feed Wednesday evening heard more than one instance where the FBI representative actually lied to the four individuals. Despite this, the first three walked out to authorities this morning after being assured that Rev. Franklin Graham and Michelle Fiore, Nevada assemblywoman, were present and waiting to receive them. A great deal of prayer and conversation to ease tensions was necessary to convince a reasonably distrustful Fry to vacate the camp, all of which was streamed live by constitutional activist Gavin Seim of Washington. Two hours later, he walked out to join his fellows, closing the 42-day drama but not the ongoing, essential dialogue about government transgressing its power; power limited by the Constitution. As much as national politics has overshadowed the news cycles with crass language amid candidate exchanges, there is no discussion of greater legitimacy and import than this one of government infringing individual rights. It is inherent in the issues of open borders, unvetted refugee influx, economy-straining regulation and taxation, sale of fetal tissue and body parts, and government funding all of the above. Every one of these concerns is of dire importance to the American people and the candidates must focus on communicating their substantial plans to handle them, not pie-in-the-sky rhetoric. Set aside the populist, literal free-for-all, promising everything and delivering nothing but deeper debt and bondage to government. Take note of what just occurred in Eastern Oregon and address what takes real courage – standing for what’s right, not what’s easy.