An open letter to the Governor of Nevada
Waddie Mitchell
Waddie Mitchell
2014-05-29T06:00:00ZAn open letter to the Governor of NevadaElko Daily Free Press
We have not met, so all I know of you are your actions as my State’s governor. Allowing Big Brother to invade our State is reprehensible. Remember, you sir, were elected to govern and protect Nevada, instead you have opted to set a dangerous precedent for every state by not stopping, which is in essence condoning, the Feds from coming and running rampant over our State and personal rights.
We didn’t hire you to let the great State of Nevada become a federally owned and run kingdom. Side-stepping important issues is not what our representatives are supposed to do. Where is your sense of duty to Nevada and Her people?
This has nothing to do with “party lines.” Allowing the BLM to mount military-type missions on private citizens, to collect on a bill of fees for use of land within your state is giving fundamental rights away. If he broke any law, it was a law the BLM wrote, not a State or Federal law. I must have missed the memo where we agreed to let self-written BLM rules become laws, punishable by extreme measures such as facing an armed and testosterone-driven bunch of hired guns, willing to murder “real” law-abiding Americans.
The rancher in question did not steel cows or money, a car or a fence post. He did not threaten, punch, kick, poke or throw a rock at anybody. He did not juggle the books or kidnap a cat. He is not a criminal in any sense of the word, though the government makes him out a bigoted law breaker for their purpose of their taking his ranch. They didn’t pay the rancher or his many ancestors for stewarding the land for a century and a half, which is something the BLM has more than proven they can’t or won’t do. The BLM has shown themselves incapable of doing anything right, let alone their job which is to manage land, feral horses and multiple use. Since when were they given the authority to become bill collectors with the use of deadly force?
This is no conspiracy theory, look at the numbers. Since the BLM earnestly started grabbing power back in the late ’70s, the ranges’ health is down, productivity has been reduced by two-thirds and the feral horse problem is worse than it has ever been and completely out of control.
The rancher has refused to pay grazing fees totaling less than $200,000, but with interest and penalties it is now over $1.3 million, which makes the actual fees less than 16 percent of the bill. In the private sector it would be against the law. It makes a loan from loan shark look like a bargain. Only they and other government agencies like the IRS can demand such outrageously high, self-set extortion monies legally.
All this because he refused to pay fees to an agency that is hellbent on putting him, his family and the family’s legacy out of business as they have all other ranchers in Clark County. He is the last one standing. If you don’t think this is the lowdownest, underhandedness way of stealing, gaining and controlling private water rights, then you need a wake-up call.
By you not stopping this you are also condoning, by their own numbers, their spending $6 million of our tax money on the round-up of the “criminal’s” cattle while they claim to not have enough money to do the job we pay them to do. (And their pay keeps going up.)
I have been confronted by an armed thug and told, “Get off Federal land,” to which I replied, “I have a right to be on public land.” I was assured, “There is nothing public about this land except the name, this is Federal land and I have orders to do anything it takes to keep you off.”
At that time, they were gathering to steal and auction off a rancher’s means of support because, well, they could. He is in the right but they stole his way to sustain himself and his wife, and they now garnish his measly Social Security check and keep him so poor he is not even getting by, let alone mount a case in court against the Big Brother machine. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, the rancher happened to be Shoshone, in his 80s and on reservation land.
Are you so nearsighted you can’t see that you’ve opened the gate for even more bolden acts of government aggression, intrusion and takings? Did you consider how you’ll impact the other Western States (and eventually all States) due to your reckless decision? Are we who don’t live in the large populated areas not worth your time? We are still Nevadans.
In any court, if you can show an established precedent, the judge will likely rule in its favor. Mr. Governor, you have just thrown away Wayne Hages’ 20-year battle, and ultimate victory, over a bully government takings case which was similar to the rancher’s case.
You know, the heart and soul of our state isn’t in Her cities, it’s out on her outback, the part of the state that most of us Nevadans like to lay claim to. The real Nevada I love, tough, different, self-reliant and proud, is now being taken down by a bunch of soft, self-serving bureaucrats, and on your watch. Do you think this is what Nevadans, at least the ones that aren’t politicians or bureaucrats, want? Do you think Americans want this? Will you be proud of a legacy as the Nevadan who sold out Nevada and in turn, private rights?
By your actions, you have just as much told us that you are OK with Nevadans facing the Government goons on our own. Or, we can do as you’ve done, turn our backs and pretend this is only as big a deal as the Big Brother government wants us to believe. They would rather not have other people know about the Federal agents who came prepared, armed and willing to harm Americans for protesting a big government’s taking of private property.
Thanks for the support of private rights, Governor. You know, it’s always the politicians that are willing to start a fight someplace they don’t belong ( Korea, Viet Nam, Grenada, Iraq, Afghanistan ). Now they’ve turned their power grabbing on their own citizens. Of course, they don’t get their sissy hands dirty. I don’t believe the people in the U.S. want or would put up with this kind of hard Government takeover if they knew anything about it. You should know about it as our Governor and you should be ashamed.
We were warned by this country’s forefathers to be weary of a government and the politicians who want more power. Mutual friends told me you’d be a good governor, that you were a Nevadan. I voted for you and was hoping we’d have some leadership. Most of us know that your days are eaten up with mundane paperwork, public relations, endless meetings, phone calls, parties and your own fundraising. Leadership, though, comes from those committed to do the will of the people, their constituents and the people in their charge, not big government. Good Governors are those who do the things best for the State and the people who entrusted them with their voice, those who watch over and protect our Constitutional and our personal rights. Leadership is also shown in those who will choose right over personal gain.
I, for one, am disgusted with the situation around the VA and its treatment of American vets. These government “takings” are just as dishonest and just as wrong! By not standing up to big government you have let down the State and we who live here.
— A lifetime and proud Nevadan, Waddie Mitchell
We didn’t hire you to let the great State of Nevada become a federally owned and run kingdom. Side-stepping important issues is not what our representatives are supposed to do. Where is your sense of duty to Nevada and Her people?
This has nothing to do with “party lines.” Allowing the BLM to mount military-type missions on private citizens, to collect on a bill of fees for use of land within your state is giving fundamental rights away. If he broke any law, it was a law the BLM wrote, not a State or Federal law. I must have missed the memo where we agreed to let self-written BLM rules become laws, punishable by extreme measures such as facing an armed and testosterone-driven bunch of hired guns, willing to murder “real” law-abiding Americans.
This is no conspiracy theory, look at the numbers. Since the BLM earnestly started grabbing power back in the late ’70s, the ranges’ health is down, productivity has been reduced by two-thirds and the feral horse problem is worse than it has ever been and completely out of control.
The rancher has refused to pay grazing fees totaling less than $200,000, but with interest and penalties it is now over $1.3 million, which makes the actual fees less than 16 percent of the bill. In the private sector it would be against the law. It makes a loan from loan shark look like a bargain. Only they and other government agencies like the IRS can demand such outrageously high, self-set extortion monies legally.
All this because he refused to pay fees to an agency that is hellbent on putting him, his family and the family’s legacy out of business as they have all other ranchers in Clark County. He is the last one standing. If you don’t think this is the lowdownest, underhandedness way of stealing, gaining and controlling private water rights, then you need a wake-up call.
By you not stopping this you are also condoning, by their own numbers, their spending $6 million of our tax money on the round-up of the “criminal’s” cattle while they claim to not have enough money to do the job we pay them to do. (And their pay keeps going up.)
I have been confronted by an armed thug and told, “Get off Federal land,” to which I replied, “I have a right to be on public land.” I was assured, “There is nothing public about this land except the name, this is Federal land and I have orders to do anything it takes to keep you off.”
At that time, they were gathering to steal and auction off a rancher’s means of support because, well, they could. He is in the right but they stole his way to sustain himself and his wife, and they now garnish his measly Social Security check and keep him so poor he is not even getting by, let alone mount a case in court against the Big Brother machine. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, the rancher happened to be Shoshone, in his 80s and on reservation land.
Are you so nearsighted you can’t see that you’ve opened the gate for even more bolden acts of government aggression, intrusion and takings? Did you consider how you’ll impact the other Western States (and eventually all States) due to your reckless decision? Are we who don’t live in the large populated areas not worth your time? We are still Nevadans.
In any court, if you can show an established precedent, the judge will likely rule in its favor. Mr. Governor, you have just thrown away Wayne Hages’ 20-year battle, and ultimate victory, over a bully government takings case which was similar to the rancher’s case.
You know, the heart and soul of our state isn’t in Her cities, it’s out on her outback, the part of the state that most of us Nevadans like to lay claim to. The real Nevada I love, tough, different, self-reliant and proud, is now being taken down by a bunch of soft, self-serving bureaucrats, and on your watch. Do you think this is what Nevadans, at least the ones that aren’t politicians or bureaucrats, want? Do you think Americans want this? Will you be proud of a legacy as the Nevadan who sold out Nevada and in turn, private rights?
By your actions, you have just as much told us that you are OK with Nevadans facing the Government goons on our own. Or, we can do as you’ve done, turn our backs and pretend this is only as big a deal as the Big Brother government wants us to believe. They would rather not have other people know about the Federal agents who came prepared, armed and willing to harm Americans for protesting a big government’s taking of private property.
Thanks for the support of private rights, Governor. You know, it’s always the politicians that are willing to start a fight someplace they don’t belong ( Korea, Viet Nam, Grenada, Iraq, Afghanistan ). Now they’ve turned their power grabbing on their own citizens. Of course, they don’t get their sissy hands dirty. I don’t believe the people in the U.S. want or would put up with this kind of hard Government takeover if they knew anything about it. You should know about it as our Governor and you should be ashamed.
We were warned by this country’s forefathers to be weary of a government and the politicians who want more power. Mutual friends told me you’d be a good governor, that you were a Nevadan. I voted for you and was hoping we’d have some leadership. Most of us know that your days are eaten up with mundane paperwork, public relations, endless meetings, phone calls, parties and your own fundraising. Leadership, though, comes from those committed to do the will of the people, their constituents and the people in their charge, not big government. Good Governors are those who do the things best for the State and the people who entrusted them with their voice, those who watch over and protect our Constitutional and our personal rights. Leadership is also shown in those who will choose right over personal gain.
I, for one, am disgusted with the situation around the VA and its treatment of American vets. These government “takings” are just as dishonest and just as wrong! By not standing up to big government you have let down the State and we who live here.
— A lifetime and proud Nevadan, Waddie Mitchell
Copyright 2014 Elko Daily Free Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
