Memory Lane / New Road to Freedom 

I'm taking a trip down Memory Lane and praying for a New Road to Freedom at the same time.

In the spring and summer of 2001, of my own cognitive power, I saw that something wrong was happening in Klamath Falls, Oregon, 2,400 miles away.

That something was remarkably like what U.S. Fish & Wildlife 'Service' was trying to do here at the time, in the Darby Plains of Ohio (which also happens to be some awesome Amish and Mennonite farm country that dates as far back as 1806). Our fight was with the USFWS-stated "possible habitat" it said we had for the "endangered" "Indiana bat." Here we have hydric soil and manmade drainage ditches, drain tile, etc., to dry many fields so they can be responsibly utilized and farmed.

It's not easy to get a peaceful farming community -- especially one that's Amish and Mennonite -- to stand on its hind legs and say NO to a federal agency with an apparent agenda to take control of every square inch of America AND planet earth. It took us 3 1/2 years of consistently saying NO and refusing to "collaborate" (a very onerous/dangerous word) before USFWS finally left this area: the first and ONLY time it had failed to install CLOSED signs on a large area of private property.

Anyway, during that time, we had a Darby Farmland Rally on September 2, 2000: Labor Day. Mostly good people from 45 states and 3 Canadian provinces came to a farm field in west-central Ohio to hear Wayne Hage, his wife and U.S. Congresswoman (R-ID), Helen Chenoweth-Hage, and other folks speak about property rights and how to protect those rights.

The following April, that same federal agency's boss, the Department of Interior, instructed another of its tentacles to shut the water OFF for the Klamath farmers & irrigators. I closely followed that illegal abominable action and its consequences, and when it seemed that the good folks at the Klamath "A" Canal Headgates needed the moral support of their friends, it was only natural to load the little Ranger pickup truck with donations and journey to Klamath Falls. Wiggles Blue Heeler and I were there for eleven days before heading home, leaving the day before the headgates were breached, but learning a lot more about the area and its people during that time. We made enduring fri endships, helped cook at the Headgates, said many prayers, shed some tears, got & gave some hugs, and became "family."

At no time did I trust ANY "political leadership" that "gave" interviews in exchange for what looked to me like press photo ops. My feelings on that score have solidified.

It's simple, really. Say no and mean no. Don't allow others to tell you who your friends are or aren't. Don't allow yourselves to be "collaborated" out of business on the siren promise of "guaranteed" water. Remember, that was the same promised floated to the good veterans and their young families when the Klamath Project began. The federal government has waxed criminal in its actions, no matter how slick and smooth its facilitators and their "assurances."

I grew to love the Klamath Basin, but it would be nothing without its people. Every man, woman and child in the Basin and many that have never set foot in the Basin, depend on what's grown in the Basin for their health and sustenance. ANYONE or ANY organization or ANY agency that seeks to "restore" the area to what is actually "pre-European settlement" condition is bent upon the destruction of the Klamath Basin, no matter how polished their delivery of slick, professionally choreographed words.

Being an incurable optimist, I believe it is never too late to send the bad guys packing. Private property owners, you've witnessed the "nature conned servancy" blowing up dikes with gleeful abandon. You've witnessed federal agencies playing you like a violin and extracting every pound of flesh possible before casting you aside with the final indignity: one apologetic paragraph in a "history" book of the future that deigns to mention Klamath farmers. You've seen "public-private partnerships" and "behind closed doors" meetings that cooked up an "Agreement" that fully intends to take control of the entire Basin and its property. What's next? That's up to each of you, but saying NO worked for us here. We did not collaborate; we did not cooperate; and we di d not capitulate to anyone that sought to steal our private property and the lands and waters that are still fertile and clean and still produce abundant crops and economic health.

A line must be drawn in the sand. It's a great idea to stop talking to the crooks. I thought that's what was done in August 2001. The removal of the Headgates need not stop either or both from happening now/again. Say NO to all that would erase farming/irrigation/private property ownership in the Klamath Basin and be stoic and firm when saying NO.