Mr. Bundy, please stay off my land

By Richard Small, Las Vegas

Wednesday, April 16, 2014 | 2:01 a.m.

When my mother retired and moved to New Mexico a number of years ago, she came in contact with a number of boastful cattle ranchers. She quickly realized that the easiest way to deflate them was to ask: “And exactly how much of the land that you use do you own?” Big hat, big cattle, almost no land.

Cliven Bundy was paying his bill, then decided to stop. Huh? Would someone please give me his address so I can send him a bill for using my land? Every interview that strays toward public land and payment to us — the public — is quickly deflected toward some vague topic of freedom. Really? How stupid do you think we are? Cattle are destructive. They are on public land. It is my land and yours.

This is a story about greed dressed up in a melange of misguided hatred of government. My/our land. If you are given the privilege (that is a subsidy) to use it, pay up.

Let’s remember, that the gun-totin’, freedom-lovin’, I-don’t-want-to-pay-my-taxes-or-my-health-care folks who drove to Bunkerville got there on roads paid for by public taxes. An inconvenient irony?