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Editorial: Rule of law prevails in Oregon
The standoff at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge ended with a cigarette and a cookie.
With that, patriot/terrorist David Fry surrendered to law enforcement officials who have given him and other disciples of Cliven Bundy more than enough slack since they occupied the refuge Jan. 2.
Bundy’s arrest in Portland on Wednesday night was doubly satisfying for the many who have wondered how long his theft of federal lands would be tolerated, and the aiming of weapons at representatives of the law abided.
Fry, Bundy and the others deserve some time in the stir. Americans who value their public lands should not be locked out because a few extremists seize, or threaten to seize, parks, monuments, refuges or reserves.
The closures of Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge on the West Plains “out of an abundance of caution” against possible seizure should disturb the thousands of visitors who treasure its wetlands, its wildlife and its serenity.
What is a teacher planning a field trip to the refuge supposed to tell students? That they can’t go because men with guns are threatening to shoot at the rangers, or deputies, or federal agents?
They won’t get that biology lesson, but they should get one about the rule of law. That’s why it was important that the Malheur occupants were arrested.
In the United States of America, we don’t settle differences over the interpretation of law, or the possession of property, with weapons. Those disputes belong before the legislative bodies of this country, or its courts.
The Malheur squatters have been indicted by a grand jury. One whom officers say was trying to pull a weapon out of his waistband is dead. If he had kept his hands in the air, he would almost certainly be alive today.
The common charge against the occupants is felony conspiracy due to the use of intimidation, threats and force to impede federal officers from doing their jobs. They did more than that: They deprived Americans of the use of their land.
It’s important that, if the evidence will sustain the charge, the occupants be convicted of a felony. No one who uses a gun to intimidate an officer of the law should ever be allowed to own one again.
Felons cannot possess a firearm.
President Teddy Roosevelt created the Malheur refuge in 1908. We can thank him for safeguarding millions of acres of land we take as a birthright.
Are all those lands managed as well as they might be? Obviously not. Ranges are overgrazed. Forests are underthinned. Our national park system, which marks its centennial this year, badly needs maintenance.
That’s on us, the owners, who decline to spend the necessary funds, or charge ranchers like Bundy the market rate for grazing, or campers more of the cost of collecting trash and directing traffic.
Malheur will need, and get, a lot of love from Americans who cannot imagine their country without its refuges and other lands. Those who commandeered Malheur wanted to take that land away.
No way.