Weighing In: My thoughts on the Cliven Bundy situation

Imagine that you are living in a house that was built by your ancestors. You love this house. It is a piece of who you are, your heritage. It's a beautiful, one of a kind house, well suited to the needs of your family and the lifestyle you intend to live. It has been in your family for just under 150 years, passed down within the statutes of the law, from generation to generation. Each generation has maintained and cared for the house to the greatest of their ability.

One day, a team comes to your house and informs you they are now in charge of managing your house. There are a lot of people on the team. They are powerful and influential, and in an attempt to keep the peace, you agree to let them become a part of your life and have occasional access granted to your home. (I mean, you're not unreasonable, and your mother did teach you to share with others.)

Then, one day, this team shows up at your house and tells you that they are changing the scope of their management practices regarding your house, whether you like it or not. You are now going to be confined to living in only a portion of the house and the rest of the house will be given to some cats. Yep, I said cats. Naturally, you resist. Surely the management team can't just decide that you no longer have access to a portion of your house? Regardless of your resistance, the cats move in and you share your space. Still, you're not willing to give up without a fight. You begin seeking the help of legal council, you go to court, you do everything in your power to stop the management team from coming in and destroying your way of life and taking your home.

Finally, a court order is issued. It's not in your favor. The management team is coming in to take your home. Supposedly, their action is to protect the cats living in your house, but the same group that is taking your house for the cats is also down the road killing cats because they just can't afford to support them. What is your reaction to the situation? How do you respond to the management agency when they arrive at your home?

I'll give you a minute to think about it...

Now, I realize this isn't a direct translation of events as they are unfolding in Nevada. It would be impossible for me to create a scenario that incorporates all the different facets of the situation, but I believe it hits the highlights. I've thought a lot about this situation over the past several weeks and this is my take on it.

The Cliven Bundy family settled in the Bunkerville, Nevada area in the late 1800's. They established a ranching lifestyle and passed it down from one generation to the next. In 1946 the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was established and began assisting with the management of public lands-already in use by a family that had arrived approximately 70 years earlier. Then, in 1993, this same management organization (the BLM) comes in and informs the Cliven Bundy family that they are no longer allowed to use the land because it is a habitat for the vulnerable (not yet endangered) desert tortoise. Never mind that the cattle and the tortoise have been sharing the land for the past 120 years without causing the extinction of the species? Never mind that this family's livelihood was tied up in the land? Never mind that just down the road in Henderson, Nevada, the same government forcing Cliven off his land for the desert tortoise was also planning to euthanize hundreds of the same species due to lack of funding? He was just to succumb to the will of the government and walk away? Wouldn't you resist, if it was your way of life at stake?

So now an unarmed family is being beaten and attacked. They have sniper rifles trained on them and when they tried to question the BLM about their belief that the BLM had begun shooting and disposing of the cattle on the range land, one of the BLM officers grabbed a 57 year old woman and threw her to the ground. Oh, and heaven forbid you should try to help that woman up or come to her defense, because that gets you hit multiple times with a taser, or at the very least, a threat of German shepherd attack dogs and "you'll be next".

I'm fairly certain that this is bigger than cattle and range land. The government must stand to gain A LOT over this, because if they don't, I can't imagine them fighting this intensely. I think it's safe to say that the government may have forgotten that they work for the people of the United States, and not the other way around. Whether you side with Cliven Bundy or not, the actions of the BLM, on site in Nevada, are inexcusable.

Now, for the disclaimer: Yes. I am a Bundy. I am related to Cliven, somewhere down the line. I believe my great, great grandfather is his great grandfather? Someone with better genealogy skills than mine can verify. I'm not claiming 100% innocence for either side of this situation-- such a thing rarely exists, but the BLM, the federal government, definitely crossed a line on this one. At least that's how the view looks from where I sit. Please, keep any posted comments clean and orderly. You are entitled to your opinions as I am entitled to mine. Discussion is one thing, but blatant disrespect for me or anyone else that may post here is not acceptable.