When I lived in Paonia(!), a friend made a decent living as a logger. The actual trees had nothing to do with it - he gloated to me that the Forest Service paid him money to cut roads and that was his profit. This revelation was totally bizarre; few know that the traditional industries are massively subsidized by taxpayers. Recreation generates X5, X10, maybe X20 the number of jobs and local revenue compared with logging and ranching. That revenue stream is supported by leaving the trees and rivers alone, but somehow the old school has been painfully slow to adopt this unequivocal formula.
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's Good entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all humans are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
The Biggish are coming! The Biggish are coming! Get your rifles!
Yeah ...
When I lived in Paonia(!), a friend made a decent living as a logger. The actual trees had nothing to do with it - he gloated to me that the Forest Service paid him money to cut roads and that was his profit. This revelation was totally bizarre; few know that the traditional industries are massively subsidized by taxpayers. Recreation generates X5, X10, maybe X20 the number of jobs and local revenue compared with logging and ranching. That revenue stream is supported by leaving the trees and rivers alone, but somehow the old school has been painfully slow to adopt this unequivocal formula.
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's Good entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all humans are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
The Biggish are coming! The Biggish are coming! Get your rifles!
Very good post!!! And yes, the stupidity and ignorance of pretty much any and all "elected" officials needs to be noted and corrected.
Should add: far too many voters - the ones who do vote and those who dont!