Las Vegas Sun

April 19, 2024

letter to the editor:

We’re no longer in the Wild West

I fail to see how concerned citizens, and especially Nevada-elected officials, can support Cliven Bundy after he openly expressed his nihilistic views against the government and the Constitution.

He was not authorized to graze his cattle on federal property without compensating the government. This was a clear violation of the law.

It is disturbing that he sought to resolve this issue by calling friends and family with high-powered weapons to engage in a standoff. This is a Wild West vigilante mentality that died with Wyatt Earp.

It is embarrassing that a Nevada Assembly official thought Bundy’s grandstanding against the feds is within the law. Really? Elected officials take an oath to support and defend the Constitution and not urge others to violate it.

Somewhere I heard “We are a nation of laws and not men.” Shays’ Rebellion prompted Thomas Jefferson to say “a little rebellion now and then is a good thing”; however, that was for another time and another place.

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