‘The Ballad of LaVoy Finicum’

..LaVoy Finicum was only one rancher, a citizen trying to eke out a living in a livelihood the government is making all but impossible with the smothering red tape of bureaucracy. And that’s why his death that came as he was standing knee-high in the Oregon snow is all the more unforgettably tragic. “After being shot down in cold blood—as he was clearly signalling to armed federal agents and Oregon state police that he posed no threat—his body was left to lay in the snow.  The passengers traveling with him on the way to a meeting with Sheriff Palmer, left traumatized in shock in a vehicle authorities shot up like a scene out of a B-grade Hollywood movie, the authorities initially never even bothered to cover his body with a blanket.” In life LaVoy Finicum—like many ranchers—was plagued by the ongoing harassment by the agents of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).  LaVoy Finicum got about as much respect in death as one of his own cattle.

In the practical media blackout that followed Finicum’s death, Canada Free Press (CFP) is grateful to Constitution Radio KMET 1490-AM radio host and TableTopNews publisher Douglas V. Gibbs, who today gives the rancher a well-deserved and long-coming eulogy. In the face of the media blackout, this is one eulogy of which Finicum’s children and grandchildren can be proud, as it was written by a proud United States Navy veteran and one of the nation’s leading authorities on the U.S. Constitution; by a man who is current president of the Constitution Association. With an investigation into the authorities responsible for LaVoy Finicum’s death now underway, we can only hope that Gibbs’ words: “What we saw in Oregon with the shooting of LaVoy Finicum was an execution, an assassination of a person who dared to question the federal government”, won’t be the last ones written. With Finicum’s death we are also seeing the passing of yet another era, one that goes a long way in diminishing American integrity. Maybe some day, a song writer with heart will come along and mark his passing with ‘The Ballad of LaVoy Finicum’ to remind us all in song about the cold-blooded cruelty of governments who put power and one-upmanship ahead of the dignity of human life. None of us should ever rest in peace while authorities get away with calling incidents where ranchers, with whom they have ongoing disputes, cut down in a blaze of bullets, “routine traffic stops”.