I have found, that we work for a life tine, searching for something, that was right before our fingers grasp.
We search for gold that is in the future, never understanding, that we had a pot of gold, in our here, and now.
What we envy in others, we already hold in our hands……
Friends, family, wonderful things, that seem “normal” in the moment.
Don’t waste your tomorrow, when you have at your hands, this moment.
On October fourth, two thousand and twenty one, an electronic media source went dark.
Literally millions of people, put their life on hold, because the only access to life, or what they assumed was life, was a platform that controlled speech, thought, debate and discussion.
The people of our nation, and the people of our world, forgot how to talk to each other, without a filter system, that decided what needed to be heard.
People looked at blank computer screens, and cell phone screens, while human faces walked past them on the streets, or at work, or in the stores….
Not knowing how long a controlled media will be down, should not be the greatest concern to a free people.
The greatest concern, is how we were herded like cattle, into an enclosure, that others commanded, until we forgot what freedom actually is.
We have relied on others for so long, that we forgot how to talk, without having a filter, controlled by a media giant, that first profited from our individual thoughts, and later, profited from marketing us.
The dominant social system in medieval Europe, in which the nobility held lands from the Crown in exchange for military service, and vassals were in turn tenants of the nobles, while the peasants (villeins or serfs) were obliged to live on their lord’s land and give him homage, labor, and a share of the produce, notionally in exchange for military protection.
We are at a point in the history of America, that we need permission to farm, to ranch, to harvest timber.
We are the serfs, who answer to a government, that was established to protect our rights as a free people.
We need a permit to build, plant, harvest, till the soil, or collect rain water.
The Land of the Free, is now controlled by armed Forest Service Rangers, armed Bureau of Land Management personnel (BLM), and others who control every aspect of our life.
With permission, we can farm, ranch, or recreate on the kings land….not the people’s land.
For our “safety”, we have closed down twenty percent of the land in California, by the direction of an appointed Forest Service administrator.
But, it we capitulate to the rules, we may gain a little freedom in the future……
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
Want the truth about wildfires?*4/15/2021: Seven environmental groups have filed a lawsuit to halt post-fire logging in Santiam State Forest.*6/1/2021: The Kettle Range Conservation Group has filed a complaint alleging the U.S. Forest Service authorized the 48,000-acre Sanpoil Project. A timber project that would open 10,600 acres for increased livestock grazing in Washington’s Colville National Forest.*In 2016 alone, federal agencies paid out more than $49 million to special interest groups that exploit environmental laws to sue the U.S. government.*10/20/2019: An environmental group has filed suit over timber sales on the Mendocino National Forest in the wake of the Ranch fire.*1/29/2010: The Center for Biological Diversity, a Tucson-based environmental group, this week filed lawsuits against the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in seven California counties to halt logging plans for 5,000 acres across the Sierra Nevada and Cascade regions.*7/10/2019: Conservation groups sued the Trump administration today to halt a logging project in a roadless area of Los Padres National Forest.*9/19/2020: Conservation groups filed a lawsuit on Sept. 16 against the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies for allegedly misusing disaster relief grant funds for logging projects in the footprint of the 2013 Rim Fire in the Stanislaus National Forest.*The largest fire ever recorded in the Sierra Nevada, the Rim Fire that began in August 2013, ultimately burned 402 square miles, spanning parts of Yosemite National Park, private lands and the Stanislaus National Forest. In September 2014, the Forest Service proposed a plan to allow logging on 52 square miles of the affected wildlands. “This timber sale will be incredibly destructive,” the Center for Biological Diversity’s public lands director, Randi Spivak, said last year. “It’s little more than an excuse to cut old trees in forests that would otherwise be protected.”*9/7/2005: A coalition of 20 environmental groups sued the Bush administration Thursday to block road construction, logging and industrial development. In the lawsuit, the Sierra Club, the National Audubon Society, Greenpeace and other groups challenge the U.S. Forest Service decision.*7/21/2021: Gualala Redwood Timber LLC is barred from harvesting timber in California’s wine country for the next 14 days, while a federal judge decides whether to block logging further in a lawsuit by environmental groups.*2/2/2005: The state’s Democratic attorney general said he had followed through on a threat made in November to sue over the plan announced a year ago that would allow four times more wood to be harvested from the Sierra Nevada than in 2001.*The above mentioned, took 5 minutes of research….there are thousands of other lawsuits that stopped forest management. If you still believe climate change, and logging caused this hell, then you have not learned a damn thing. Lawsuits stopped harvest, and managment….it is a simple as that.
It is easy, to destroy human faith, and freedom, when you have enough gold, or food, to placate people. Those who would fight, and die for freedom, are momentarily weakened, when wealth, or food, is put at their door…
Cuban authorities confirmed Tuesday that one person has died during demonstrations that have shaken the island in recent days by protesting over food shortages, high prices and other grievances against the government.
In America, our elected leaders, placate us with money we never earned, to pay us to be silent, while they steal our freedom.
Meanwhile, the Cubans try to be free from a communist government, and our government says “go home”, and we will placate you with money, by loosening sanctions.
Meanwhile, in Mexico, the border is open, for any that want to come to America…
The demonstrations were extremely unusual on an island where little dissent against the government is tolerated. The last major public demonstration of discontent, over economic hardship, took place nearly 30 years ago in 1994. Last year, there were small demonstrations by artists and other groups, but nothing as big or widespread as what erupted this past weekend.
We are witnessing our own government, kill the hope of freedom in Cuba, while the same government purchases away freedom in America, with printed money, that will destroy our economy.
The ability to feed oneself, is, and has always been, the first priority of man.
We have built reservoirs to store water in wet years, so that we could grow grain in dry years. The water nourished the crops, that nourished the bodies of our ancestors.
We learned how to domesticate animals, so that the livestock thrived, and we as people thrived. The Cowboy was born, to feed a nation, world, and his soul.
We needed clothing, so we learned how to turn cotton into clothing, that replaced the animal skins of yesterday. And the animal skins, became the leather, that became tools for tomorrow
The trees that grow in our forests, where the source of heat for cooking fires, shelter from the storms, and the foundation for our homes, when we moved away from caves,
We learned how to plant, harvest, and plant again, the grains that sustain not only our future, but the future of the animals, that share this world, and life, with us.
In the modern world, every aspect of life, that took thousands of years to achieve, is deemed wrong……by those who enjoy the rewards of thousands of years of progress.
The lumber from harvested trees, the clothes on your back, the meat on your plate, and the water, that makes it all possible, is deemed evil…..if man had a hand in making it possible.
We have a segment of society, that wants water to flow away for nature. We have those who prefer that predators consume the livestock, that once nourished us. We have those, who think that growing grain, should be stopped, unless it is done by those who can only feed themselves, and not the world.
It is incomprehensible to me, that those with the luxuries of life, should dare complain about the luxuries that our ancestors achieved.
Tear down the damns, let the forests burn, let the fields of crops die, and let nature return….
To a time, when man was starving, naked, hungry, and lost.
We have allowed one nation under God, to be compartmentalized, so that we are our own enemies.The people who came before us, built farms, ranches, railroads, irrigation systems, even while they had social, religious, and ethnic differences.We have devolved, by design, to hate one another, so that our enemies can pick away at us.
What does it mean to compartmentalize?”assort, break down, categorize, class, classify, codify, compartment, digest, distinguish, distribute, grade, group, peg, place, range, rank, relegate, separate, sort, type.
“The founding of freedom, to produce, worship, love, and life, was not built upon any single segment of society. It was a melting of all aspects of life, and history, into a nation with a common goal of survival. Our nation’s enemies, found that they could not destroy a united people, so a means of division was put into play. “For the adversaries of freedom did not create the revolution; nor did they create the conditions which compel it. But they are seeking to ride the crest of its wave–to capture it for themselves.” (JFK)”Yet their aggression is more often concealed than open. They have fired no missiles; and their troops are seldom seen. They send arms, agitators, aid, technicians and propaganda to every troubled area.” (JFK)Before you pickup that torch, you better know who lit the fire, and what it is intended to burn down….
Who are those women and men in orange shirts, that show up during an emergency?
The answer might surprise you.
Since the early 1960’s, citizens from Fresno County, have volunteered their time, experience, skills, and common goal of supporting our community.
Those orange shirts, that you see during an emergency, be it a wild fire, or missing or lost person, are your neighbors, your friends, your family.
Search and Rescue members for Fresno County, are volunteers, who are not law enforcement officers, but work during emergencies, under the control, and direction, of the Fresno County sheriff’s Department.
The Fresno County Sheriff’s Department began using volunteers sixty years ago. And, it was started, when the department needed vehicles, and people, who could execute rescues in the back country of our county.
In 1965 the Sheriff’s Office sought to reduce its response time for searches within the county’s boundaries in the back country of the Sierra National Forest by accessing the four-wheel drive trails by vehicle. The Sheriff requested help from the only four-wheel drive club in the area, at the time, the Four-Wheel Drive Club of Fresno. Six members initially “volunteered” their vehicles, their time, and most importantly, their experience and knowledge of the local four-wheel drive trails. This inaugural group of volunteers in 1965, with the founding approval of the Sheriff, established the Fresno County Sheriff’s Jeep Rescue Unit. Through the many years the unit has developed into one of the finest off highway vehicles teams in the state. All members are first aid certified. Some are first responder, EMT, and Paramedic trained. Members of the unit are registered as Disaster Service Workers with the California Emergency Management Agency and respond to mutual aid requests from other counties when requested of the Sheriff’s Office. Team members are trained in map & compass and GPS navigation, man-tracking, and first aid. Members are sworn volunteers dedicated to serving the public through their volunteer membership with the unit.
We, today, are the same as we were fifty years ago. The people in your community.
We are not paid. We do it for the love of our community.
The vehicles you see during a rescue mission, with a Search and Rescue placard on the side, and a driver with an orange shirt, are the people, and vehicles, that you see everyday, in the normal routine of life.
During the Creek Fire, Search and Rescue team members, under the direction of The Fresno County sheriff’s Department, delivered food, rescued livestock, and pets. We watered the gardens of homes that had to be evacuated, and did welfare checks. We transported fire battalion chiefs into the backcountry, where ordinary off road vehicles could not go.
Thousands of miles, and thousands of hours, for the love of our neighbors.
The Fresno County Search and Rescue Teams include the Horse Posse, The Mountaineers, The Jeep Team, and the Air Squadron.
There are no strangers in a crisis. We may only see each other a few times a year, during a crisis. But, when we come together, we are family, because we know we have each other’s back, and the community in mind.
That “orange shirt”, is your neighbor, friend, and community.
And, we all owe it to the Fresno County Sheriff, her deputies, and the history that is our community.
Looking at the ashes, as Earth Day approaches, I’m reminded of the trees of my youth.I travel past Cressman’s, where in 1904, the store was built to support the logging industry. Half way between the Central Valley, where lumber was needed, to build homes, and businesses, and the point where the timber was harvested, and planted again, for future generations. As I travel past, I see only ashes, and burned out foundations. A bit further on my journey, that straddles yesterday and tomorrow, I see the sign for Ockenden Ranch, a community, built on the site where a post office was established in 1893, to fill the needs of those who worked at Bretz Mill. Joseph Bretz built a lumber mill to harvest, and sell timber products near shaver lake in the 1800s.Bretz Mill, now only remains in history, and as a housing tract, with overgrown timber, that has been reduced to ashes, by fire, in an unmanaged forest…The farther I travel, the more ashes I see, until I reach Shaver Lake. One of the few remaining regions, that is managed, not by the government, but by a private corporation, that had the ability to manage the forest, harvest the trees, and plant again, for yet another generation. When I reach China Peak, a skiers dream, I’m reminded of why the peak has it’s name. Young Lee, was adopted by J. A. Blasingame. Charlie, as he came to be known, didn’t like the domestic life he was offered. He preferred to work with the shepherds that Mr. Blasingame employed to care for the sheep that grazed the Sierra Nevada Mountains nearby. As sheep ranching moved to cattle ranching in the mountains, Charlie found his stride, and calling. A cow camp was built on the mountain, that we know know as China Peak. Named for Charlie, because it was called China Camp back then. Charlie grew his garden, that supplied the cowboys with fresh vegetables, at an elevation where vegetables were not known to grow, and where fresh food was a luxury. As I travel through this wasteland, that is blamed on climate change, loggers, and ranchers, I can’t help but stare in grief, that the names of the community, and places, are all that remain of those who were the true stewards of the land. The people who grazed cattle, and sheep, did not cause the inferno. Loggers of yesterday, did not clear cut the forest, as we have been told. If they did, then we would not have had the fuel load of trees that burned our history. The destruction of our land, was not a result of mankind harvesting, planting, grazing, and completing the cycle of life. The devastation, was caused, when Charlie Blasingame, Thomas J. Ockenden, Joseph Simon Bretz, and a thousand other stewards of the land, were labeled as outlaws. History, is of value, only when it is learned. I learned the history of these once beautiful mountains, because I lived at the end of times, when the truth still had a breath of life, and my eyes witnessed what once was, for a brief moment.
Bob Golden April 2021
“I had a good steak today”…a friend of mine wrote these words…Another friend of mine, Trent Loos told me that people do what is easy, not what is important.To have the steak, or lamb, or pork, is never easy.
Just because it is in the store today, does not mean it will be available tomorrow.The cattle, sheep, hogs, need the hand of man.
It is good to eat a steak…it is better yet, to understand how that steak got to your plate. It did not come from the store.
A fine thing it is, to second guess those who feed you…..until you have to feed yourself.
twentyfirstcenturydrifter 