GANGS

By Jim Beers

Five young toughs are in the throes of plea-bargaining here in Minnesota: their crime? They beat up a forty-something father that yelled at them for "inappropriately touching" his 15 year-old daughter at a local amusement park. Consider for a moment the behavior of these young men. Are you surprised? Do you think they were somehow justified in their behavior and their vicious attack on the father? Did the father somehow "provoke" them?
On three occasions in my life I have witnessed a pack of dogs kill a deer. The dogs were very efficient in cornering and then "dispatching" (i.e. "killing" for the squeamish) the deer. As best I can remember; there were no rottweillers, no Staffordshire terriers (pit bulls), no Dobermans, nor any of the current scapegoat breeds we so like to hate these days: there were mutts and beagles and fox terriers and several labs and even a golden (awww!) doing what dogs in a pack can do so well. If you don't believe this, think back to the last time you were approached by several loose dogs on your city streets or watched several dogs running loose in farm country or woodlands. Like the gang at the amusement park, avoidance would seem warranted. But that is not the point.
Millions of (mostly urban or non-likely affected areas) Americans have, sheep-like, accepted the lie that wolves "belong" in rural America in the midst of rural residences, towns, farms, and ranches despite the objections and harms incurred by those working, living, and raising families there. They have bought into the lie that wolves are benign animals that provide some "good things" like "thinning deer" and a "wilderness nature" by howling and providing a fleeting glimpse to an urban vacationer. They have accepted the lie that there is some pre-ordained (by whom one must ask?) "Native Ecosystem" that includes wolves and that man is an "intruder" whose relationship to the wolves in his midst must be dictated by government and any deviance must be met with punishments greater than child molesting or beating up fathers that seek to protect their children. By signing a UN "Treaty" (disguised as a "Convention") and then imposing an "Endangered Species Act" that trumped the Constitution by authorizing "taking" by government (for actually no reason) the Congress, President, and Supreme Court unleashed an avalanche of terror and precedents unimagined by our forefathers.
Wolves run in packs ("gangs" for the urban reader) as well as singly. What can you imagine a pack of wolves capable of doing? They weigh upwards of 150 lbs. They kill large animals. They get hungry and will eat ANY meat. They run miles every day. They habituate to humans and human activities just like their domestic cousins the fox terrier and the Portuguese water dog. They will go anywhere, especially when hungry and, like un-harassed deer in National Parks we see them as "bold" and "unpredictable". So consider what it is like to hear that your neighbor has lost calves and a llama to "wolves". Ask what you would do if your kids tell you that wolves or a wolf have been showing up at the bus stop? What would you think if your neighbor mentions seeing wolves regularly and your daughter wants to leave the grandkids with you for several weeks this summer? What about your kids playing outside or leaving your dog out at night (wolves kill dogs all the time) or about the church Scout group planning a camping trip where you saw a pack of wolves kill a moose last fall? Then reconsider all these scenarios after guns are "controlled" (i.e. "taken" away). A disarmed rural America, rampant with wolves (they can and will live EVERYWHERE given protection), will either become vacant (the intended environmental/animal rights alternative) or like rural Russian villages to this day where wolf attacks cause people to bar their doors at night and stay inside no matter what they hear happening outside. But even this is not the point!
As patently ridiculous as it is to give the ignorant (the proper word) UN bureaucrats authority over national fish, wildlife, and plant management (what, where, and in what numbers) of nations from the US and Brazil to Tanzania and India: our Founding Fathers understood that it was just as crazy to give an all-powerful US central government such power and authority. This latter is why the 10th Amendment reads (the past tense to some evidently) "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Decisions about what animals are maintained and in what numbers and distribution are LOCAL decisions that should be PROTECTED by the State governments in which those local (COUNTY, TOWN, CITY, etc.) communities are located. A federal government imposing wolves on rural America at the behest of urban, national, or international interests is and should be repugnant to all Americans! Likewise the campaigns by politicians and bureaucrats existing in governmental offices and paid with government taxes to subvert the very Constitution they used to be "sworn to uphold" should sicken us all. I speak here of everything from:
- Infringing "the right of the people to bear Arms" (2nd Amendment).
- Ignoring the right to be secure in their property (selling "THEIR" horses to slaughterhouses, using "THEIR" game fowl to fight other privately owned game fowl, etc. as protected under the 5th Amendment).
- Undermining the right of all Americans to be "secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures (consider the no-knock warrants and warrant-less searches being tolerated by and even "authorized" for animal "welfare" officers and federal "resource protection" officials).
But even all this is not the point. "Gangs" and "packs" are more dangerous and bold than individuals because of what is euphemistically referred to as a "pack" or "gang" mentality. Whether it is those toughs at the amusement park bullying and beating a father; whether it is a pack of dogs running down a deer or a trio of city dogs on their own: the danger they present is real and if it cannot be avoided, it must be confronted and controlled. Wolves, whether in packs or alone are dangerous and destructive well beyond the amusement park toughs or the free-running dogs, yet we have imposed them on our neighbors by the unauthorized and reckless power of government and then turned a blind eye to what we have done. Turning a blind eye never controlled or destroyed a threat, be it North Korea or Muslim terrorists.
The point is that there are many lessons from recent American history about the growing dangers from unlimited national and international rulers uncontrolled by the sovereign rights of free Americans and Constitutional provisions limiting and dispersing governmental powers. Today we are confronted with by far the greatest threat to our freedom and God-given rights to "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" in my long lifetime. The Socialist intrusions into the private sector (from banks to medicine), the proliferating destruction of the "right to Life", and our toothless foreign policy are all undisguised assaults meant to destroy our Constitutional way of life as surely as had we "lost" to Soviet communism through war as opposed to this "death by a thousand cuts". The "gang" behind all this consists of the President and the Leadership/Majority that controls the US Congress for the next two years. Like the wolves, dogs, and amusement park toughs, these current leaders are in a "pack mentality" and will attack and even kill anything that appears vulnerable in their way. The relevant phrase here is "appears vulnerable". In all honesty, they appear to have concluded that both we and our Constitution "appear" to be vulnerable because they have begun their vicious assault. The only remaining question is, are we "vulnerable"? Will we take the Socialist's "advice" about what to do when threatened by a cougar or grizzly bear and "not look them in the eye" or "roll up in a ball" or "don't run"; or will we do as our forefathers did with cougars, bears and wolves and stand our ground, look them in the eye, and shoot if necessary.
Jim Beers