A group of armed men led by Ammon Bundy intend on giving federal land back to the people and protesting the harshness of Dwight and Steven Hammonds’, two ranchers arrested for arson on federal land, prison sentences by seizing the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. Since the occupation began, Jan. 2, Bundy has been arrested, and only a few militants remain.
The group wants people to debate whether land should be controlled locally or by the government, and they have done so that one may think they wanted to fail from the beginning. Barging onto a nature preserve claiming you are willing to die rather than give up the small building you have forcibly taken over gives off a vibe of domestic terrorism, which is the last thing you want if your goal is to have people listen to your political views. The other side of this coin turns out to be how mismanaged the militants are. The group has turned to asking the public to send them supplies even after claiming to be ready to spend months holed up. People have sent them gag gifts to show the occupiers what they truly think about the mess the new residents of Malheur have made. The occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge has brought the group easy limelight, but many people see them as the joke they are, for even Bundy has called for the remaining militants to leave the refuge after his arrest.
The end goal of the militiamen is quite hypocritical when scrutinized. The group wishes to take land back from the government in order to give the people their resources back, but the federal government protects the land from private interests that only hope of keeping the public out and profits up. Small time ranchers may have a hard time turning a profit, but taking back land from the federal government could result in the privatization of our national parks and refuges.
The group also wants to shorten the time that the Hammonds must face for setting fire to federal land in hopes of covering up their poaching practices. The Hammonds have made it clear that they do not affiliate with the group occupying Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, and they have cooperated with law enforcement in order to serve the time required for their past crime. The group must realize that the Hammonds deserve time for they committed a crime, and this is not the government targeting ranchers but the government bringing justice to arsonists.
From presentation to message, the group has failed on every front other than making a mockery out of themselves. If the group is serious about their efforts to educate the population of their ideals, they must do so by the grace of their rhetoric and not by the shine of their guns.