The Horse’s Revelation of Societies Weakness

Well, here it is. The summation of much of the world’s woes, as once again, revealed through the horse world. The fox guarding the chickens. The corrupt judge sitting over his son’s trial. The blind man driving the automobile (no offense to the blind intended, the way technology is headed, it’s only a matter of time).

The first is that the BLM went back on it’s word and went ahead with a mustang roundup they’d promised and sworn was cancelled. Color me shocked. A branch of the government, lie to it’s citizens? Of course they would. What bothers me is that no other branch of the government seems interested in holding them accountable. You have perjury and animal cruelty in one fell swoop, yet no one ever arrests them. What does it say about our government, that it is no longer being held accountable to it’s citizens for such misuse of funds and power?

The second is this bit of news of the confusion over slaughterhouses. Now the Native nations – and for the moment, I won’t try and sort out which ones – are apparently divided, with some in favor of it.  Some still believe the horse is sacred and are firmly opposed. But the others claim ‘overpopulation’ and ‘overgrazing’ and  insist that slaughter would solve their problems.
I can’t help note that if so, they should be trying to get the slaughter plant, with its associated environmental hazards on their own reservation land. Apparently they don’t mind foisting it off on someone else. They don’t seem to be vying for the jobs associated, they just want the horses gone.
I don’t claim to know what the ratio of horses to other livestock is on the Native reservations is, or whether they have a problem. I do know slaughter isn’t the answer. But it’s a sad thing to think that people some of whom have been called ‘people of the horse’, and for some of them, still think it sacred, would consider this an acceptable solution. What is it about today’s society that people are so ignorant and determined to remain so in the name of greed and convenience?

Third, is the trial of the Tennessee Walking Horse trainer. Now what makes me shake my head at this is on the Ethics committee of the Tennessee Walking Horse Trainer’s Association. Ethics. Oh, really, ethics. The man thought nothing of soring and intentionally injuring these animals for a ribbon, prize money, or trophy. I can’t imagine why anyone would reward anyone for cruelty. But the idea of the man being on an ethics committee!! It’s incomprehensible. Talk about the blind leading the blind!

 

References:

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I'd rather be riding a Tennessee Walker Bumper Sticker
I’d rather be riding a Tennessee Walker Bumper Sticker, Available at Zazzle
Mustangs Stand Up for Their Freedom T-Shirt
Mustangs Stand Up for Their Freedom T-Shirt Available at Zazzle

Happy Fourth Of July! – May the Right Spirit Win!

Independence Day

Looking back on our founding father’s woes, its not a shock to realize that we have been a nation divided almost from the start. In order to get all the colonies to agree on the Constitution, they had to let a few things go. The biggest thing was slavery. Pretty ironic, that in order to get a free nation, the founders had to agree to leave some enslaved. Of course, the natives of this land were not considered at all.

The division is there to this day. Getting rid of slavery did not get rid of the problem. The real problem was greed, people putting their business over human life. They might be more subtle about it, but they are still at it. Whether it’s conniving land from mustangs and wild life for cattle and mining, or cutting corners to stuff more animals for slaughter into a farm, they care more about money than their fellow beings..

That’s the real secret of American freedom. That freedom’s cost isn’t just sending people out to defend it. It’s about defending it from greed right here. It’s about saying no to something because it curtails freedoms.  But it’s not so easy to identify it. There is so much demanding our time and attention, it’s easy to just focus on issues we believe affect us.

That’s what the sophisticated greedy think. If they throw enough one sided info at you, maybe you won’t notice they are not telling you everything. Maybe you won’t notice the lies.
For instance, I hear all sorts going on about jobs and the big pipelines. On the other side, I hear about environmental risk. Truth be told, I’ve yet to hear or see anything that told both sides at once. Now the truth is, they are both right. We need jobs, but that doesn’t mean we’d be willing to literally pay with our health or the destruction of our land. Some things, you can’t pay to fix. So the real question is, if these people want to be helpful and run their business and create jobs, why do they think the pennies they save are worth the cost of safety?

My point here is, when it comes right down to the wire, America has two spirits vying for control. One is that wonderful spirit of freedom, independence, help others and creativity that inspired it in the first place. The other is that stubborn pride in money that refused to sign the Constitution if slavery was banned.

That second spirit has new forms now. It hides in businesses that say ‘we are creating jobs’ while cutting corners for profit and dumping toxins that make people sick. The people with those jobs lose either way, because even if you earn money and have health insurance, you end up spending on health care, assuming even that will cure them! They also claim that while dumping huge amounts of money into their account they can’t pay the workers any more.
What’s terrifying is how these people respond to challenge. They take advantage of  their funds to pay for lawyers to get them out of it. Worse, some government agencies are in cahoots. The way the Bureau of Land Management is run, you’d think that land all belonged to them personally, rather than the citizens of America.

I believe when the average person celebrates the Fourth, we are celebrating our freedom, the hope of that chance to not only have a job, but a fulfilling life. But do we? I hope so. But we have to keep battling that other spirit. Gunpowder can make for fabulous fireworks. Our country is full of magnificent creatures, wild and free.  It’s up to us to do our best to see they are their for future generations. It’s up to us to save that gunpowder for the fireworks and not waste in blowing each other up. It’s up to us to keep our authority figures reminded that we elected them to serve us, not their own wallet. To remind the big corporations that without their workers and buyers, they have nothing.  To remind the police that they are there to protect and serve, not bully the people who essentially are paying them.

So here’s to the Fourth of July and our continued fight for independence. May the right spirit win!

Take a Stand for Honor, Horses and History in 2012

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by life. So many issues, who has time to research them all? It’s so easy to just ‘believe’ what we want to believe or what we are told by the government, corporation, boss, coworker, friends or family.

But sometimes the little issues we ignore are the small stones preceding an avalanche. And sometimes the politicians and big corporations are using some issues to direct us from others, so that we don’t consider the danger: if they will lie and sell out in small areas, who is to say they aren’t selling out in others.

Sometimes you just have to speak out.  Some of us use our voice. Some use bumper stickers, or hats or t-shirts. Some even use graffiti. Our art is our voice and when we ignore the signs it’s the first thing that has funding cut. Teach the kids math they think not art, as if creative problem solving and expression isn’t just as important in life.

We’d rather go for pop culture thought. So try this one:  Take a look at the history of the Star Wars galaxy. A great Republic is deceived by one man from within and destroyed. That’s not just fiction. It’s the history of our world too. It’s a case of misdirection. We get busy looking at the ‘big’ issues that the ‘big’ news covers and we miss that issue over on the side that is evidence of the corruption within.

Assumption is a dangerous thing. It can cost us money. It can cost us time, or our dreams and hopes. It can also cost our ethics. You can be as loyal as you like to political parties or your favorite corporations. But if you love something, you don’t ignore it’s flaws, you try and correct them. And it takes a lot of money and influence for these people to get elected. Easy for them to forget what it’s like for those of us without it or to swing the other way and assume we won’t care what they sell out.

My personal issues to go to war over (metaphorically speaking)? Well, naturally the biggest ones involve horses.

But lest you think I’m just deciding based on my love for them, here is my decision making for who to believe and side with on issues:

  1.  Facts. Prove it, don’t just tell me and expect me to believe.
  2. Listen to both sides.
  3. Follow the money and the motives. Who stands to gain on either side?
  4. Is it really my business at all?

My first war is this:

The Bureau of Land Management’s management of wild mustangs, which they are charged under the 1971 act protecting free roaming horses and burros as American symbols of the west. I for one, wanted to believe they were doing just that, from the time I first read “Mustang, Wild Spirit of the West” by Marguerite Henry.

1. Congress asked them for proof of their decision making process and how many horses were left. They could not provide it.

2. They ask for huge funding to roundup and warehouse them even though they still have not proved the need.

3. They are trying to keep journalists out. Their is currently a lawsuit about it. But photo and video of horses literally being hit by helicopters has been captured. This behavior would get any other pilot in trouble.

The horses injured in the roundups are so high in number that any civilian would be arrested for animal cruelty.

4. Fact: In spite of the law, the places the horses have been allowed has been whittled down. When they are removed due to ‘too many for the land to support’ (again, they have shown no proof) cattle move in. Millions of cattle can fit but a few hundred horses can’t? I’m no math expert but something doesn’t compute.

The BLM’s conclusion: round them all up, geld the stallions and just have show herds.

Their reason: they are overgrazing and horses non native and never mind the law.

My Conclusion:

  • That isn’t ‘free roaming’ it’s slow extinction. No stallions = no foals = death of the wild  mustang.
  • They can’t prove the overgrazing.
  • The horses originated here before dying out, so it’s a native species returning. But the cattle were never native.
  • They can’t prove the horses numbers. But even their claimed ‘goal’ of how many horses left takes us to a level too low for them to survive given the genetics involved. That can be proven.
  • It’s MY LAND and YOUR LAND, yet the Bureau of Land Management and the local states and ranchers act as if it’s all ‘THEIR’ land. It’s the land of American citizens. All of us, not just them.
  • And it’s MY MONEY and YOUR MONEY. So our government claims it’s out of money yet they can supply the BLM with millions of this money for roundups and holding of mustangs without any proof.

Why? What is the Bureau of Land Management and Department Interior’s Motive for this?

  • The head of the BLM is a rancher and the board tends to elect those with like minds.
  • Some have tried to get the BLM to combine with the Office of Surface Mining.
  • The Dept of Interior has come under fire for being too closely aligned with mining interests. The BLM is closely aligned with Ranching

What do the opponents, those who resist the roundups have to gain?

  • Big bills as they drive to the roundups and try and witness them. Bills for land, rooms, and transportation and meanwhile time off from other jobs.
  • More bills as they fund lawyers who are going against other lawyers who are paid by the deep pockets of our own government.

The final warning on the BLM though is their response to criticism. They repeat the same old line without answering any scientific challenge, ignore all protests in meetings, keep the rounded up horses on private land so no one can witness their treatment and just try protesting on their website. They flat refuse to take emails in objection. Sometimes they say it but others it just doesn’t work. Normally I’d think that was just a glitch. But not now.

The worst part  they claim they keep journalists out for their own safety. Right. Journalists with horse experience.Journalists are embedded in war zones with the military and going out in hurricanes and disasters. But they can’t watch a roundup? They might spook the horses. More than the helicopter hitting them spooks them?

These design ideas hit me whenever I get…MAD! I expect they’ll keep coming. It’s an odd form of inspiration born of fury. Fury that my country is being corrupted.

I suddenly experienced an upsurge in my ‘Don’t let the Wild Horses fade away’ designs at Zazzle. Not surprised, its’ bumper stickers. Think I’m the only one whose concerned at the deception?

Fading Away Wild Horses

I’ve also sold several: “Mustangs are an American Heritage, Don’t You Dare Sell out My Share’ featuring a buckskin charging.

Mustangs an American Heritage  Mustangs: Stand up for their Freedom

I’ve got one whole Cafepress shop devoted to a bay stallion battling a mountain lion. T- shirts, mugs and more. That idea would be easier than battling humans. At least the lion just wants dinner. No, humans are a worse predator. We take more than we need and show little little at the long term damage.

Don’t take what I say at face value. Research it yourself, just for a few minutes a day if you can. If you won’t or can’t buy my t-shirts or bumper stickers, at least speak out and spread the word. Sign the petitions. Let your political leaders know that it’s your money and land and you want accountability in how it’s used.

Oh, and regarding creativity: nothing against cows, but when is the last time you were inspired by one? But the sweeping beauty of the west, the galloping wild horse have inspired true history and fiction, art and beauty, called out to tourists who are shocked to arrive and find the same horses are being wiped out. The Mustang is a symbol of freedom as surely as the American flag and bald eagle. It symbolizes the hard working cowboy, the native american battling for his land, it even has a car named after it.

What is it worth to me? Will I ever get to see a wild Mustang? I don’t know. I live in the East. But they are mine too, not the local western states. And I have seen the wild Chincoteague ponies during the annual roundup. One sight of how packed that town is and the idea that horses aren’t a tourist attraction gets blown out of the water. What about the people who claim they are cockroaches? Hm. Funny. I’ve never heard of a cockroach being a cow pony, or inspiring movies or winning Dressage championships like Pedro.  And a horse only foals once a year and a wild one has no guarantees of survival. As far as I can see, the only similarity to a cockroach is that a horse is a life form.

One thing I guarantee you. I don’t come up with these designs just because I’m looking up for a sale. The inspiration has to go somewhere. It may as well be into the art.

Sources:

The Bureau of Land Management

Wild Horse Freedom Foundation

Dressage Mustangs