Side Saddlists

Stewards of our Future

Side Saddlists

Recreant Representation

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

            I smiled all morning.

            Not long ago we rode with a Sierra Alta Ranch cowboy in the attempt to retrieve some cows. Brannon Mobley was there representing his grandfather and father, Tom and Fred Mobley, to help us locate those wayward cattle, return them home, and find the hole in the fence they climbed through.

            Oh, to be 18 again …

            To be around young men like Brannon who are skilled and have lived around elders who not only provide mentorship, but teach them to interact with all ages is reassuring. He was as interested in riding with a different crew as we were getting to see his country and all what goes on across our own fence lines. He talked nonstop.

            We spread out and made big circles converging back together on Brannon’s instructions of points of water. Finding no cows or fresh tracks, we rode together to the ranch’s Little House Tank. Around a steep hillside we rode as Brannon continued the discussion hanging out over the drop looking backward but keeping balanced in the manner that only comes from experience. He was booted and spurred with shotguns just like his predecessors a hundred years ago. Only his current hat style with a glimpse of a mass of curly blond hair gave the suggestion that he is also aware of what the young folks prefer these days. I am fine with that. I like to see each generation define themselves. I just prefer to turn my hat around the right way with the broad flat plain covering the back of my neck.

            We learned about the new horse he was riding. We learned about Jesse, his first mare named from The Man from Snowy River, and we learned that he expected his grandfather to continue shoeing his own horse until the day of his great reward.

            It was all unpretentious, good stuff. He owned the moment as much as he owned the mountain.

            Brannon was courteous, respectful, well spoken, and confident. As a young steward in training, we expect him to parlay that into the future with his own style of leadership that his family has displayed in the fight for our heritage. We want him to find much success, and we hope the central focus remains on the rocks, grass, and big sky that we all observed that day. He and others like him represent special emissaries to our future, and they are fewer and fewer.

            What stands apart from the memory of the day, though, was the ride as much as the rider. It was second nature and all in a morning’s work, but few could actually do it with the economy of effort to both rider and horses that was done. There was no show. Regardless of age, it was of horsemen with horsemen.

            That stands in juxtaposition to the majority of circumstances in the world around us. Too much of the agenda of the contrived world is absent of foundational substance. Regardless of how or what hat they wear, too many folks are not sitting straight and natural in any saddle. In fact, too many of them are riding … side saddle.

            Recreant representation

            Politics is a terrible thing. Perhaps it always has been, but the waste of the national treasury and the abuse of the citizenry seems to have no boundaries. Examples abound.   

            There are now 1,438 college programs in the world that are teaching this new sensation, sustainability. A whopping 89% of those programs are being taught in the United States. The programs are not in one department or even one school within universities, but scattered throughout different disciplines. As loosely defined as it is, the subject is becoming an order of the grand secular faith, environmentalism.

            Its leadership projects an aura of intellectual sophistication as if they are bold new adventurers in realms unfathomed by us commoners. In that matter, there is agreement. We can’t comprehend the paradoxes and enlightened principles of this supposed science. We view it as the same fraud and deception that we assign to the mother ship, environmentalism.

            And, the cost is incomprehensible.

            The 1,280 programs being built in American universities are consuming some $3.4 billion annually. At the same time, those schools are graduating a human product that is woefully unproductive. Forty six percent of all college graduates are underemployed and there is little hope of that changing.

            As for leadership needed to curb educational waste, there is none. In fact, the acceleration of spending in this segment only increases.

            Viewed by this administration as inconsistencies in historical intent, even the tests for citizenship are being tweaked. No longer is “Freedom of Religion” a correct answer among the multiple choice questions. The correct answer has become “Freedom to Worship”. That sets the stage for boundaries of the implied freedom. The vast majority of American institutions of faith ‘worship’ within the confines of four walls. When those worshippers leave those sanctuaries, the course is now set whereby the matter of “Freedom of Religion” faces potential jeopardy. The modified freedom now implies the act of worshipping only and that takes place for Christians within a structure not in the street or the public square.

            As for substantive leadership outrage and demand for correction, there is none. In fact, the acceleration of antagonistic faith appeasement only increases.

            There is abundant evidence illegals are registering and voting in American elections. The prevailing press no longer even shrugs. The matter has become an open act of defiance on the part of the illegals and dismissal on the part of the press.

            Organizations pushing for voter verification and remedial actions are being ignored and mocked. The agency quagmire is infinite. No longer is administrative procedures even ruled upon by majority action of the Election Assistance Commission as required by law. The Commissioner himself is calling the shots.

            As for Congressional leadership forcing adherence to the law, it is absent. If corrections are made at all it must come from citizenry suing the agency and the government for compliance.

            The environmental demand is dwarfing other discretionary spending. The EPA is establishing yet another advocacy platform. The Natural Environmental Justice Advisory Council has arrived. From this body, the agency will receive advice about “crosscutting” issues relating to environmental justice. This will include new and undiscovered environmental related strategies along with scientific, technological, regulatory, and economic issues related to environmental justice.

            As for committed leadership from any governing body, they seem to be in the dark about this hallucinogenic folderol as we are.

            That also applies to the pending USDA recommendation to remove all meat from American diets and to adopt full plant based nutrition. Those bureaucrats are no longer even condemning red meat in our diet as much as they are adhering to the marching orders of the progressives who have the perception that cows are harmful to the planet.

            Then, there are the Christmas police. Observing what the private Underwriters Laboratories set forth in the ‘90s for festive lighting standards, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has finally taken the information and created official, enforceable regulations. They’ve made law.

            As for constitutional Congressional leadership, they will only blink and, at most, stage another grand charade of disgruntlement by crowing and flapping their wings in a committee hearing.

            Future Steward(s)

            Career politicians and their wards of state, those that rely on the system, are crushing us. We are weary of supporting their elaborate fiefdom that effectively retards productivity, ingenuity, and hope.

There is no civility and the majority of us are tired of being told we need to be civil in order to win and prevail against the modern day version of sun worshippers. The point is simplistic. Why should we be civil to anybody who is seemingly intent on terminating our existence? There is nothing civil or kind about that mission.

The tail is wagging the dog. Our system is out of control and there appears to be no moderating force for correction. As for a vigilant and free press, we have learned there is no such thing. There has likely always been a biased and politically aligned press. We must count them out.

            That leaves the dilemma of seeking the force that can balance the chaos and install some degree of discipline and hope into our representative republic. Congress has failed and Republicans and Democrats alike are guilty of breaching their oaths to support the Constitution.

            That brings us to the future presidency.

            The choices are either slovenly narcissistic, or they are examples of popularity tightrope walkmanship that is unbecoming. We are weary. Someone must step forward and demonstrate they can ride tall in the most important saddle, and doing so by discarding the political propensity of riding … side saddle.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “Leadership coupled with quality mentorship is a very powerful thing. Fortunate is the youth who is exposed to the combination.”