On the EDge: Anti-environmentalists will lose monument fight

January 2, 2017 Utah Channel 3

OPINION – One lesson learned early in life is that you shouldn’t pick a fight you can’t win.

It’s a lesson that should be heeded by a group of anti-environmentalists who have pledged to fight a couple of land designations recently handed down by the Obama administration in Utah and Nevada.

The anti-environmentalists are up in arms about an area near the Cliven Bundy ranch in Bunkerville, Nevada, and the Bear Ears area up north being designated as national monuments. Of course, these folks would be happy to strip nature of its historic, cultural and aesthetic beauty to build strip malls and condos in the bottom of the Grand Canyon if the price was right.

So, they’ve already got their anti-federal stooges lined up, from Rep. Jason Chaffetz and Sen. Mike Lee to the so-called Bundy militia to fight the designations. Even Sen. Orrin Hatch has jumped into the political fray, saying that his support of Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Montana, the nominee for Secretary of the Interior, depends on how Zinke responds to his questions about reversing the monument designation.

“His responses will largely determine my support for his confirmation,” Hatch said.

Sounds like a bullying tactic to me.

In other words, work with me to stiff President Obama and you get my vote, side with those other guys and I’ll be gnawing on you like a rat on a Cheeto.

But, good luck, guys, you are going to have to move heaven and Earth to get these two designations overturned. So, my response is the same as the one conservatives have been braying since the election: Deal with it.

It would be a serious mistake for the militia types to saddle up, all locked and loaded, to challenge the law once again because I seriously doubt the feds will put up with another armed confrontation from the militia types who drew down on them in Oregon and Nevada, and even with a Republican Congress, I don’t see them mustering the vote to overturn a decision only the extremists dangling from the far right are getting in a lather about.

But, we’ll find out as we further explore 2017, The Year of Uncertainty.

There are far bigger issues on the table than defending a rancher scofflaw or the desire to drill and build condos on a piece of land deemed sacred to some.

The guy waiting in the wings has Israel, North Korea, promises of “yuge” job increases and, of course, the sticky situation with Russia that will be of much greater consequence, not to mention a promise to erect a wall along the Mexican border, ship undocumented workers across that same border, set up some generally unfair tariffs for the greater world to deal with and figure out how to undo the Affordable Care Act, even though fellow party members are beginning to understand how valuable it has become to the average American.

At the outset, it looks like it is going to be a very good year for the attorneys, who will be kept busy with all of the lawsuits and countersuits in what is sure to be a disorderly transition of power and usurpation of our government and Constitution.

You never know how the courts will rule, but with the likelihood that we will see a regressive appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, let’s hope any final judgment is more than four years in the future when things will hopefully return to normal and the nation comes to its senses.

Meanwhile, the new normal has the majority of us – at least 3 million – scratching our heads.

I mean, I come from a generation where those who supported Russia and its leaders were considered traitors; those who would draw weapons on law enforcement officials were considered criminals; and those who radically opposed the government were considered anarchists.

It’s all different in this Bizarro World we now live in where up is down, in is out and the wizard hides safely behind his curtain. I know who awaits these people at the crossroads and am relieved that it’s not my debt he is poised to collect.

What complicates things even more is the fact that we are saddled with a media that has had its head stuck in the sand for too long, covering the last presidential race as a novelty instead of the truly historic event it was as the misanthropic herd danced to a martial waltz. As a result, it will take them quite some time to shovel down through the pile to reach the critical mass we call truth, thus more uncertainty.

So I truly wonder what awaits. We lost some of our favorite people in 2016, what will we lose in 2017? Anybody who claims to have the answers is pulling a major bluff, except the chips on the table are all too real and because anything is possible, it’s a bad time to go all in.

I’m reminded of that classic “Twilight Zone” episode in which the aliens arrive on Earth with all sorts of helpful advice to make humankind healthy, peaceful and in a state of ease and bliss.

As the episode progresses, one of the scientists working with the aliens discovers a book titled “How To Serve Man,” with alien writing inside.

He works long and hard to decipher the writing only to, in the final seconds of the program, go all bug-eyed and screaming from his lab.

He discovers that there is no benevolence in the book and runs out into the population screaming “It’s a cookbook!”

Well, friends, looks like we’ve got another cookbook stashed somewhere and we’re in a heck of a stew.

Ed Kociela is an opinion columnist. The opinions stated in this article are his and not representative of St. George News.

Email: edkociela.mx@gmail.com

Twitter: @STGnews, @EdKociela

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