You Don’t Have to Agree with Bundy to Disagree with the BLM
Nevada Rancher Cliven Bundy has become a national figure since refusing to pay federal grazing fees. He has argued that the land in question belongs to the state of Nevada, not the federal government. His story took an unexpected turn on Thursday when the New York Times reported that Bundy made some pretty controversial remarks about black people:
“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. Mr. Bundy recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, “and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do.
“And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”
While some of Bundy’s biggest advocates have distanced themselves from him in light of his comments, others have attempted to reinterpret or clarify what he said, including Bundy himself.
Let me be clear, I do not agree with what Cliven Bundy reportedly said and I find his attempt at further explanation a little perplexing. That being said, I’ve never felt that I had to align myself with Bundy’s personal beliefs or opinions in order to stand in opposition to the BLM’s actions. The choice here was never stand with Bundy OR stand against Bundy with the BLM. I also don’t know anyone who supported Bundy for any reason related to his personal beliefs about race, gender or religion.
No sensible human being agrees with racism, but all sensible Americans agree that the Federal Government is out of control, and that someone, whether it be Bundy, or some other American or group of Americans, needs to stand up to the outright lawlessness of this government when they take things too far. Who Cliven Bundy is, what he said (racist or not) and the context it may have been said in has absolutely nothing to do with the government employing bully tactics in an attempt to garner more power over U.S. citizens. The real issue is about the Federal Government. They are out of control.
The fact that Bundy’s comments will be discussed more than the actual situation at hand is discouraging. In this uber-politically-correct world we live in, it seems that we have lost our ability to differentiate between facts and opinions, and even worse, news and propaganda.
