Quote:He does realize that what he's talking about is the federal park program setup by Teddy Roosevelt? Because that's exactly what that is and what these people believe is that the government can't setup regulations regarding federal parks and protecting them from commercial exploitation. If these people had their way there wouldn't be the Grand Teton Park and Yellowstone wouldn't exist as well hundreds of other nature areas. Some of the most beautiful scenery in the US and the world would have been turned over to the kind of people who would strip the land of whatever was valuable on or in it. 

 

No, I don't think this has much to do with the federal park program set up by Teddy Roosevelt.   If you look at the link I provided, you can see that almost 85% of the state of Nevada is owned by the federal government.   There aren't that many national parks in Nevada.  Nationwide, the federal government owns about 28% of the land in the United States, almost all of it located in the western United States.  

 

http://fusion.net/story/250995/oregon-mi...this-land/

 

So, this is not about federal parks.  

 

I have very little sympathy for these "militia" guys, just as I have no sympathy for ISIS or Al Qaeda.  Nonetheless, it is a good thing to understand their motivations, even if you reject them.   Imagine yourself as a rancher out west who has been grazing his cattle on federal land for decades, and then all of a sudden, this land is reserved for some endangered species.   Well, it sounds great if you live in New York City, by all means, preserve the land for the endangered species, but in the meantime, you are squeezing a rancher out of business. 

 

You can be a big government person who believes in preserving the environment and providing for the common good, just as I am in most cases, but we should not forget, when the federal government rolls over, people get squashed.  

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