Former Forest Supervisor: Why I Resigned Over a Public Land Dispute

[gratuitous]

4. Interesting essay

It comports with many things I've known just by living in Oregon and having some tangential contact with the tension between public and private lands.

It's odd, though, that the author acknowledges that for many western ranchers, realizing that they're dependent on artificially controlled markets and the whims of meat packers, creates a great deal of stress for them. A lot of people who aren't ranchers are similarly situated, but there isn't a massive federal subsidy supporting them, no massive inter-agency cooperative efforts to succor them, and they're on a far more precarious financial footing than ranchers.

In addition, the same system that is keeping ranchers under such extreme stress doesn't treat others under even worse duress with the same kindly regard. When non-ranchers finally crack, they don't get the same hands-off treatment that ranchers get. Instead, they are brutally and violently put down at the first suggestion of dissatisfaction. Perhaps we'd see some progress toward a more just society if the same treatment the ranchers get was rendered to everyone on the edge? I note that the ranchers have gotten this consideration through an unrelenting program of non-cooperation, threats and violence toward government agencies and employees. I wonder if others could use these same tactics to carry their argument?