Lone demonstrator keeps 24-hour vigil for LaVoy Finicum | St George News
I want to thank the employees of the BLM St George office for allowing me the opportunity to exercise my 1st amendment right. I enjoyed visiting with those of you who came out and visited with me and made sure I had water, and also the employee who offered to get me lunch. Spending time speaking with you, showed me that you are reasonable men and women, who love this country and actually want what’s best for her. I told you I would not encourage anyone to stay and protest and I would make sure it did not get unruly, and I was true to my word. As well, I told you I would lay my life down to protect you, and I meant what I said, and that oath will never be broken.
I swore an oath to defend this nation against all enemies foreign and domestic, I meant it then and I still stand by it. I will not live in rebellion, and I will not encourage anyone else to engage in rebellion.
I want to thank all the people who stopped by to visit and talk with me and those who brought me hand warmers, and food and drink. I was overwhelmed by your love and support. I especially want to thank the woman who hugged me when I really needed it, I will never forget you kindness.
I also want to thank those who stopped by in opposition, believing that my protest was something other than it was, and left in agreement when they understood my position. Listening to your positions on the public lands was definitely worth my time and helped me to understand your position, in particular that the lands would be destroyed, mismanaged, and that corporations would destroy our wonderful and beautiful country here in Southern Utah without the BLM.
Nevertheless, I believe in local rule and I believe that government that is local does the best job, because it easier to protest their actions and depose them if they fail to listen to the electorate. I do not agree that state control of the public lands would destroy them, and in fact, I believe that state management would meet the needs of all interested parties, far better than control from Washington, thousands of miles away.
Destruction of our lands is not something I want, and in fact, I have organized cleanups of the public lands for several years. My wife and I have organized the cleanup of wild cat dumps on the Arizona strip, and to date, we have picked up over a 100 tons’ of trash, and I hope we can work together with the BLM on this project again this year.
As well, I want to thank the family members of the Lavoy Finicum who came out and shared a bit of the family history with me. I was blessed by meeting all of you. My life and understanding of Lavoy is better for it. I am truly sorry for your trouble and I mourn with you your family. You are the salt of earth.
Finally, my position is, and will continue to be, that their needs to be an independent investigation into the shooting of Lavoy. I believe this investigation should include neutral parties with the experience in investigation to look at all the facts that led up to the shooting. As well the investigation team should look into how this type of violence can be avoided in the future, but still allow citizens to exercise their rights. This event started well before the road block, and I believe it could have been avoided.
While I was there, I was asked by member of federal law enforcement if I thought an independent investigation would help settle things down, that is if it would be accepted. My response was that I did not know and I needed to think about it. I still do not know, but after careful deliberation I can say that failure to do so will definitely heat things up.
As well, I think that if the investigation presents methods to avoid this type of bloodshed in the future, the public, the radical left, and the radical right, will all see that progress, and perhaps, that hope will settle things down.
This is opportunity to change the way we do things, let’s not miss it.
I absolutely believe there could have been a resolution that did not end in bloodshed and believe as Americans we owe it to ourselves to seek out better solutions, so that next time we can avoid the death of anyone, even those we disagree with, even those we love to hate.
Please sign the petition here:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/pe...deral-agents-january-27-2016-united-states-ag
