NOTE: We wrote this article before Cliven Bundy opened his mouth and injected race into the dialogue. Bundy said a lot of other good things, that included the racial comments, but the racial comments over shadowed the other things he said. Not because he wasn't right, but because the other side, including the media, will pounce on anything that appears racial and immediately change the narrative, especially if the racial comments come from a white man. The main issue of the following article was the spirit of the west personified by the cowboy, as contrasted against the ever-growing federal police state. We stand by that contrast.

I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them." John Wayne, from 'The Shootist'

"Now remember, when things look bad and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. 'Cause if you lose your head and you give up, then you neither live nor win. That's just the way it is." Clint Eastwood, from 'The Outlaw Jose Wales'

Probably one of the meanest, most cantankerous and unpredictable domesticated critters that exists, is an open range cow. They will scatter, they will bolt, they will stampede and they will charge, without provocation. There is only one other critter mean enough that can herd 'em, rope 'em and brand 'em and that is an experienced cowboy on an experienced horse. You might be able to herd cattle with a helicopter or a quad, but you sure can't rope and brand 'em. There is no way that a helicopter can cut out a cull, or chase a stray into the tumble weed, or rope the stray and bring it back to the herd. Helicopters can't mend fences, or challenge the elements but they sure can stir up a lot of dust.

Becoming an experienced cowboy is a life of a long train of hard lessons and hard knocks. Scrapes, bruises, bloody noses, saddle sores, deep cuts, fights and broken bones are part of those knocks. With the possibility of being thrown from a horse, ripped up by a cactus, or gored by a bull, only the tough ones measure up to the challenges and obstacles. Do you think for one minute that a lyin' Harry Reid or a bunch of city-bred federal officers are going to detour them when their mind is made up to get something done?

Sure, the federal government has the firepower to blow a bunch of cowboys to Hell and back, but if they did, they risk some serious bad press and the very real possibility of an all out revolution. As we said in our last article on the subject, "Millions of Americans Are Just Itching To Lock and Load", but maybe government doesn't know it. If the lead starts flyin' and men start dyin', it won't all be cowboys crumpled in the dust, there will be a bunch of BLMdians layin' on the battlefield as well. That tragically, would be a treasonous act where government pits Americans against Americans.

Lyin' Harry comes out and calls these brave Americans, men, women and children, lawbreakers and domestic terrorists. The fact is, lyin' Harry is a dangerous, corrupt, pontificating old fool. The little pip squeak is drunk on his own power. He could care less about the law. And his son is an apple that dropped straight down from the tree. Wasn't it lyin' Harry that illegally gave $17,000 to his daughter from his campaign funds? Isn't his son using his dad's influence to cut deals with the Chinese and God knows what else? So why isn't Harry locked up behind bars, or expelled or recalled from the Senate?

Yes Cliven Bundy is in violation of the law. That is clear. But the government's way of settling the issue with Bundy was what a dictator does. A dictator sends in an overwhelming force of fully armed storm troopers ..... or is it the American government's version of the Nazi's SS? Unfortunately, the American federal government has morphed into enforcement of law by military intimidation, in other words, enforcement by the threat of death. It is a potentially dangerous trend that is playing out all over America and if allowed to continue, will send America straight into the jaws of civil war or revolution.

The Bundy event is not an isolated case. U. S. Fish and Wild Life, in collusion with the Bureau of Land Management and in violation of law and long-settled, undisputed grazing and water rights, are terrorizing ranchers and farmers in every state, in the name of radical environmentalism and endangered species. Wayne Hage, also a Nevada rancher and now his son, have been fighting the U. S. Government for almost 20 years over grazing and water rights in a similar situation of the government illegally rounding up his cattle and selling them at auction. The Hage's have won a $14,000,000 settlement in lower courts but haven't seen a dime of it as the government files appeal after appeal. The legal fight rages on with the outcome in doubt for rancher Wayne Hage.

In an article by John Fund of the National Review entitled "The United States of SWAT", John highlights some other examples of this emerging trend:

"Take the case of Kenneth Wright of Stockton, Calif., who was "visited" by a SWAT team from the U.S. Department of Education in June 2011. Agents battered down the door of his home at 6 a.m., dragged him outside in his boxer shorts, and handcuffed him as they put his three children (ages 3, 7, and 11) in a police car for two hours while they searched his home. The raid was allegedly intended to uncover information on Wright’s estranged wife, Michelle, who hadn’t been living with him and was suspected of college financial-aid fraud."

"The year before the raid on Wright, a SWAT team from the Food and Drug Administration raided the farm of Dan Allgyer of Lancaster, Pa. His crime was shipping unpasteurized milk across state lines to a cooperative of young women with children in Washington, D.C., called Grass Fed on the Hill. Raw milk can be sold in Pennsylvania, but it is illegal to transport it across state lines. The raid forced Allgyer to close down his business."

"Brian Walsh, a senior legal analyst with the Heritage Foundation, says it is inexplicable why so many federal agencies need to be battle-ready: "If these agencies occasionally have a legitimate need for force to execute a warrant, they should be required to call a real law-enforcement agency, one that has a better sense of perspective. The FBI, for example, can draw upon its vast experience to determine whether there is an actual need for a dozen SWAT agents."
(source: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/376053/united-states-swat-john-fund)

So who called the shots for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to send in this overwhelming force to intimidate what lyin' Harry calls a domestic terrorist and says doesn't pay his fees and his taxes? (Hmmm! Wasn't it this same lyin' Harry that fabricated the lie that Mitt Romney didn't pay his taxes, or that all the horror stories coming out of Obama Care were lies as well.) It was a close confident of lyin' Harry who now directs the BLM that ordered over 200 SWAT agents and snipers to surround the Bundy ranch. Harry's hands are all over this, but why? What does lyin' Harry (or his son) gain by driving Bundy off of his land, or throwing him in jail? Because ladies and gentlemen, Harry can and most likely because Harry or some of his associates want that piece of desert, which rancher Cliven Bundy and his family have owned since the 1870's. This whole sordid event reeks of government corruption and racketeering.

Once again, the federal government has under estimated the American people, a heavily armed population that will take IT for just so long, before they directly challenge a government that has ever-so-slowly become isolated from the people they are supposed to serve and instead have become an enemy of the people. But especially the federal government has under estimated the spirit of the American west where most obstacles were just a bump in the road for the hardened cowboy.

Ladies and gentlemen, America is not Europe, Russia, China, or some third world country. It was born out of freedom and the epic struggle to secure that freedom. America was created on the wings of adversity. It has slain tyrants, kings and dictators. Americans conquered a continent and tamed the wilderness. The true heart of America is strength. It is honor. It is courage. It is generosity. It is creativity. It is industriousness. It is hard work and it is self-reliance and individual responsibility. Contrary to popular belief, what America is not is a bunch of slovenly takers who feed off a government-run pig trough that is kept full by the hard work and toil of America's producers, stolen by government. Yes, the takers live among us, but they do not represent what is the real America.

Most of the American people aren't about to let freedom die for a lyin' Harry Reid or the BLMdians, or any other form of intimidation by force or threat of death that government decides to inflict upon them. Many Americans say: " ... when things look bad and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. 'Cause if you lose your head and you give up, then you neither live nor win. That's just the way it is ...." and that is the American spirit of the West, personified by the cowboy. Government under estimates that spirit at their own peril. When necessary, some Americans won't lose their heads and they can get real mean and they don't intend to lose, give up, or die in the process. The true American spirit is epitomized in the words of John Wayne in The Shootist:

"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them."

Government, at all levels, we admonish you to move forward with extreme caution and beware the spirit of the American cowboy, or take the chance of triggering an all-powerful backlash of "we the people" that you will not be able to control. The call of liberty is echoing across the land and it will not be silenced no matter how many SWAT teams you deploy.

Long live a free America and long live the spirit of the cowboy that will keep her free if called upon when a lyin' Harry or the BLMdians raise their ugly heads.

Let it be known that in this article, we mean no disrespect to the American Indian.

Ron Ewart, a nationally known author and speaker on freedom and property issues and author of his weekly column, "In Defense of Rural America", is the President of the National Association of Rural Landowners, (NARLO) (http://www.narlo.org) a non-profit corporation headquartered in Washington State, an advocate and consultant for urban and rural landowners. He can be reached for comment at info@narlo.org.