Sportsmen Owe the Bundys a Thank You (Field & Stream)

[struggle4progress]

February 12, 2016
by Bob Marshall

As the last of the armed occupiers left the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon this week, many of their supporters said the fight would go on. And that’s the biggest lesson to be learned from this crisis for sportsmen — and all Americans who understand the importance of the public lands we own. We’re in a long-term fight.

If anything, we should thank the Bundy Family and the other misguided souls ... Their outrageous acts uncovered just how deep support for their goals is anchored in a dangerous quarter: elected officials who are in a position to steal our property ...

“Now that the Bundys are in jail, it’s time to focus more on the politicians and fat cat industry executives bent on stealing our public lands ... These are the people licking their chops, looking at ways to steal our public lands so they can exploit them for their own profit. That’s the danger this really exposed.”

Those industries include the usual suspects—oil, gas coal, timber, big agriculture—that typically spend tens of millions annually trying weaken the environmental regulations that protect wildlife habitat on public lands and waters. They also pour millions into the campaigns of politicians we elect to protect our property ...

http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/the-conservationist/sportsmen-owe-the-bundys-a-thank-you

[enough]

1. Great. I've been thinking there might be a positive outcome of all of this,

people starting to realize how real is the threat of the push for privatization of public lands, and what it would mean.

[struggle4progress]

2. The preservation of public lands, like much other good progressive law, is the fruit

of intelligent coalition building -- and its important for people who regard themselves as serious environmentalists not to overlook hunters and fishermen as part of the coalition that preserves wild spaces

[awoke_in_2003]

3. Very true. K&R. nt

[The Polack MSgt]

4. K&R