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"Activism"
On August 28th thousands of Utah patriots gathered at the state capitol seeking change. Their battle cry – Take Back Utah!
Farmers, ranchers, miners, energy interests and recreationists joined together as activists in a common cause. Equality among the states is not just an idea whose time has passed, it is a Constitutional principle. From statehood more than 100 years ago to the present day, our national government continues to hold and control two out of every three acres of our state. Is that equality? Absolutely not!
Our state is treated as little more than property of the United States – a possession to be dictated to.
One of the original Sagebrush Rebels of the 1970s, President Ronald Reagan said of this travesty, “The federal government can’t figure out if they are landlord or king”!
Activism is born at the grassroots and comes from the heart. It is broad-based. It is an action verb. It draws like-minded people together in organizations like the nearly 30,000 Utahns who are members of the Utah Farm Bureau working together for the common good. Farm Bureau policy and advocacy actively supports sovereignty, equality and liberty.
Policy makers in Utah and in Washington, D.C. need to recognize the difference between the kind of broad-based activism on display at the ‘Take Back Utah’ rally and the narrow interests of radical environmental groups like Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) and Western Watersheds Project (WWP). Members of this environmental mafia use activist courts and threat of lawsuit to impose their will, rather than seeking consensus, grassroots support and compromise.
They are nothing more than prostitutes to the Equal Access to Justice Act rifling through the wallets of American taxpayers to fund their courtroom theatrics and blackmail tactics. This extreme activism is not representative of the beliefs and values of Utahns.
SUWA continues to push for Congressional enactment of the Red Rock Wilderness bill seeking to lock up nearly 10 million acres of Utah into non-use. Utah’s entire Congressional delegation opposes the bill sponsored by New York Democrat Maurice Hinchey. WWP, who recently received a $15 million payoff from El Paso Gas to withdraw objections to its 640 mile long Wyoming to Oregon pipeline, is challenging the 32 year old Public Rangeland Improvement Act (PRIA) formula that sets the annual grazing fee on federal lands.
Utahns oppose this kind of radical environmentalism, blackmail and abuse of agriculture, industry and the American taxpayer.
With a reported 3,000 Utah members and only 15,000 nationally, who does SUWA really represent? Their role and importance on the political landscape is highly overstated.
To those patriots who gathered at the state capitol to rally for real and positive change, Mark Twain had some thoughts. “In the beginning of change, the patriot is a scarce man – brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.”
Farm Bureau members are patriots and activists engaged in change through a time-tested grassroots policy process. Your policy calls for equality among the states. You want the politicians who gather within the beltway of Washington, D.C. to embrace the ideals of Founders. You want a central government with limited powers as defined in the Constitution. You seek a Utah where our Governor, elected by Utahns, determines what is best for our future – not a bunch of bureaucrats living 2,000 miles away on the Potomac.
As a member of the original 1970s Sagebrush Rebellion, I was proud to be part of the 2010 Take Back Utah rally. It has become a continuation of that cause, now taken up by a new generation of Utahns who love liberty too.
Thomas Jefferson told his generation and it applies to this generation as well, “A little rebellion now and then is a good thing!”
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