The Presidential Race

View from the Ranch

The Presidential Race

Sharecropping and Mr. Williams

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

 

            The vote count from Iowa was 30,015 for Romney and 30,007 for Santorum.  The first step in the panning process was started.  What will be found at the bottom of the pan when the process concludes?  Will it be gold … or will it be lead?

            The Wolf Parable

            Parables have a good track record for land stewards.  They tend to separate confusion and prompt more thought than rebuttal. Complex debates, where rebuttals are mired with progressive viewpoints, can be simplified.  After all, we were shown the Way in such a manner.

New Mexico rancher, Austin Smyth, recently set forth one of the greatest shortcomings of the Mexican Wolf Recovery in a parable. When a stakeholder group was trying to define the problem of ‘habituation’ of the wolves in the recovery program, Austin suggested he could describe it.

His intent was to describe why the project wolves are increasingly prone to human-wolf encounters.  The folks in the Smyth assessment are US Fish and Wildlife (USFWS) Interagency Field Teams that eagerly watch over the released wolves.

“I’ll tell you what happens when you trail project wolves,” he began. “When you initially track these wolves you will see them watching you from across the canyon as you crest the hill.”

“After that canyon, you will see them at intervals stopped and watching you,” he continued. “Later, you will see them as close as a hundred yards walking along looking back at you all the while pacing your advancement.”

Smyth’s simple description painted a picture of why the Mexican wolf recovery program is failing.  The wolves are subtly reinforced that humans are not a threat.  They need to be watched, but, as long as the protection afforded by the federal recovery teams exists, they won’t face a lethal challenge.

Left to the USFWS mission preference, the wolves can be wolves without conditions until they are recovered. To the agency, they are noble kings of carnivores. 

To the shareholders who have to balance the outcomes, they must be endured regardless of rationale.  What is being created, however, is a track of higher level conflict that cannot be viewed as objective or sustainable.     

Presidential Candidacy Naiveté

Newt Gingrich was a guest on Sean Hannity’s radio show late in 2011. On the particular show, he discussed the issue of federal lands in the West. In an interview that should make all rural Westerners uncomfortable, Mr. Gingrich discussed the domination of federal ownership of lands in states like Nevada as if it was a new discovery.

The upshot was Mr.Gingrich suggesting such ownership could be used for all manner of things.  It could even be used to resolve the environmental conflict! In the case of Nevada, half the state could be given over to the environmental agenda and the rest could be handed over for economic development ... Holy Cow!

Isn’t it time some presidential hopeful starts to understand the West? Do these people not understand there are Americans on these lands that have been given the same rights and privileges that were intended and promised to all citizens? 

Their existence isn’t an exercise in an ongoing federal scheme of political intrigue and fascination. They are people who continue to attempt to maintain productive, primary enterprises of worth. They are people who raise families, pay taxes, and contribute to the general welfare of their surroundings. 

They deserve more than the out of hand and flippant campaign oversights that have become the norm. The midterm elections of 2010 were clear cut signs of disgust out in the hinterlands.

Mr. Gingrich, if you expect to prevail, you had better start acting like the historian you profess to be!   

The Sharecropper ‘look back’

This column has advanced the idea of a modern sharecropper phenomenon occurring and growing within the realm of federal land’s Agriculture. In its historical context, sharecropping was recognized as destructive social enslavement. 

It was a state of suppression affording those trapped in its throes little hope for advancement. Poverty and generational servitude resulted. The condition is viewed today as one of the great blemishes of American history.

Austin Smyth’s description of the wolf looking back is the perfect analogy that describes many Westerners. They have attempted to survive while looking back at the advancing federal juggernaut. 

The comparison, however, ceases at that point.  The advancing federal front is not a protective body intent on the survival of an endangered species as the case of the wolf.  The advancing force is an ever growing army of ideologues in shiny new pickups that swarm every corner of federal domain. It is an expanding Tsunami intent on growing environmentally influenced agency empires …but (or and?) is destroying the historic resource based industries of the West.

The Vectors

In every form, the assault hints of sharecropping disgraces.  Decisions made externally from the point of involvement, tenants disallowed to alter enterprise plans, habituation emanating from ownership handouts, the suffocation of changing policies and rules, the inability to capitalize improvements, the insecurity of contract terms, the unequal interpretation of ground rules, the influences of a disengaged authority, the rotation of overseers, the absence of conflict resolution, the unity of ownership and police authority, and the primacy of land ownership all mimic the enslavement mechanisms of sharecropping. 

Take any of the above and attempt to apply the factor in a historical framework.  Does it describe today or 1875 … it is both … and it is destructive.

Joy cometh in the morning?

America is crying for leadership.  The greatness of industries has come from the loose union of independent men who are given the freedom to carry out ideas and tasks in the face of risk. 

The leader we seek is not the leader who is going to forge the plan for change and success.  The leader we seek is the leader who crafts the plan that allows us to forge the path for change and success.  That perspective seems to frighten too many people, but it is the only perspective that creates the complexity of thought and action that supports success.

Greatness in the fields, plains, rock formations, and forests we exist comes from no plan. It comes from mistakes, insight, diligence, work, failure, success, and ideas that have no chance of support or approval if ceded to a body of elected officials.

Most of the time, we have no idea where we are going until we read the sign, adjust the approach, and find the way.  Such a continuing dynamic is constantly misconstrued and inappropriately represented.  It is easily sidetracked, vilified, and condemned, but it is the purity of endeavor that allows our society to advance.  It is right, and we must defend its correctness.

Not impressed

Not too many of us are impressed with any candidate.  In fact, we should seek the association of those who are not impressed.  The sum total of those we have elected in the past have our country in a mess. As such, how can we support anybody without reservation?

Jim Williams is one of my few heroes. He was a guy who, at the end of his life, gave himself credit for very little. In his self assessment, he gave credit to those around him for all his successes yet every business he touched succeeded.

When Jim sold his last business, his Arizona ranch, he headed to southern California to finish his life.  He lived in a hotel and he would wander around and kept to himself.  At some point, he discovered a coyote that lived in the once cow country around the hotel. From time to time, Jim would give the old coyote a handout. He started looking forward to their encounters.

One day, Jim was found sitting on his haunches crying like a baby. He had found the coyote dead.

“You know, I fought those things all my life,” he said unabashedly through the tears. “He and his kind are just like me.”

He lived while skirmishing with the forces of “no” his entire life. He had asked for no favor, but had taken one each time it was offered fairly.  He viewed the coyote similarly.  Both of them accepted what came without fanfare or regret.  Both of them lived freely and their successes were the sum total of their efforts.

The wolf and our government could learn a lot from the coyote … and men like J.R. Williams.

We need a president who understands the tears that Jim shed are as important as any term in the White House. We need a president who understands that Williams and men like him are our true strength. Their trail may be uncharted, but, collectively, they got there …and they carried us with them.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher. “I don’t trust my country to anybody who has never been exposed to the risk of failure on his own, and … doesn’t trust the instincts of free and independent men.”

THE WESTERNER sez: Do the current crop of candidates have Presidential timber, kindling or sawdust?  Looks like the Republicans are going to serve us yesterday's oatmeal.