"The Death of Honor; and the Desertion of Our Children"

Available again 7/2/2009 – JW            For unlimited publication in its proper context.

                                                            © James A. Waddell, Happy Camp, CA 1996

                "We the people... do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America" ... Preamble to the U.S. Constitution.

             "History is clear that the first ten amendments to the Constitution were adopted to secure certain common law rights of the people, against invasion by the Federal Government."  Bell  v.  Hood,  71 F.  Sup.,  813,  816  (1947)  U.S.D.C.

            "Where rights secured by the Constitution are involved, there can be no rule making or legislation which would abrogate them." Miranda  v. Arizona,  384  U.S. 436, 491.

            "This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made on pursuance thereof... shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding."  Article VI  U.S. Constitution.

            "WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it..."  "... when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariable the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security."    (Excerpts from the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America, July 4, 1776).

            "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."  Perhaps more people should have read the Constitution and became familiar with this Oath that every president must swear to.

            The Senators and Representatives...  and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the Several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, “to support this Constitution;..." Article VI of the U.S. Constitution.

            We may be impressed by the honor and dignity which is "supposedly" mandated by these written words.  We have witnessed wrong-doings by elected people, and appointed people, who have ignored and even defied their own sworn Oaths of Office; violated the laws of the U.S. Constitution, and our laws subsequent to the U.S. Constitution.  Why do we accept the seizure of land in Utah by illegal Presidential Proclamation, and the Presidential cease and desist order, by way of the U.N., to mining operations in Montana?  Why do WE accept the economic death of towns and counties that are surrounded by natural resources?  Why do WE accept the situations of thousands of Forest Industry citizens being put out of work even though our national forests grow 15 BILLION board feet of wood EACH YEAR?  WHEN WE need and use the wood!!!

            We have been subjected to demeaning conditions of life which have been developed by arbitrary edicts of non-elected officials... conditions which have destroyed hundreds of businesses and brought difficulties to our families and friends.  All for NO GOOD REASON!

            "We must stop cutting Redwood now, or our Redwood will be all gone in the next twenty years."

            "If we don't stop cutting our public timber now, we will run out of timber in ten years!"

            These seem to be reverberating chants of the Mass Media and the Propaganda of the Enviro-Socialists of our modern world.  Yet, these doomsayers yelled these protests, (or something very close to these), not this year, not last year, but the first was being yelled, with "a high moral tone", in 1910, and the second was the hot item to be reported on in the media in 1917!

            It is true that the volume of annual harvests of timber on public lands have not exceeded the volume of annual growth in more than sixty years.  Why do "People" keep saying that we're better off now because we stopped the Loggers from over-cutting?  If annual growth exceeds annual harvest, there is no "over-cutting!"  The problem is brought on by biased people that compare the harvest volumes of the past to the current growth volumes on land acreage left-over after locking up 90% of the forested land base for management other than for forest products.

            Even the Self-Admitted dishonorable president we have now tried to intimidate 10 year old Elizabeth Baily, (of dying-Timber-Town Hayfork, CA), by saying to her in front of all the reporters, "There's only 10% of the forest left!  We have to quit cutting timber!"

            A school teacher scared-the-heck out of a six-year old boy, and intimidated him into believing that his father was doing evil by being a logger!  The little boy came home crying and told his Dad, "I don't want to die, Daddy!"  The school teacher had told him that if his father and other loggers didn't quit cutting down all the trees, that there would be no more oxygen and we would all die!

            Asinine, and uninformed, celebrities like Paul Newman are led around by Enviro-Obstructionists who seek to have the federal government seize control of all land and all land/natural resources.  

            "You loggers have cut down 98% of the old timber in this country!, and now you want the last 2%!," so said Mr. Paul Newman.  The news media plays the confrontation, of the do-gooder against the "evil, profit-oriented" loggers, for the most money, regardless of facts.  (Look at all the profit Paul Newman has made by putting his picture on wood products... PHOTO FILM!!)  The media has even been ignoring facts available from non-biased sources such as reports from the forest service, and from colleges of the United States.  The news media has lost its integrity and its important place in society by failing to report the truth to the people. 

            The forest area of the U.S.A. stands at 730 million acres, and annual harvest volumes are equal to about one-third of the volume grown each year.  We need wood products. We have the forests to provide our wood products.  Why do we want to buy everything from other countries?  We kill our own business and give our money to other countries!  This is not wisdom!  Knowing better and still fouling it up is stupidity!

            While it is not too much of a chore, virtually none of the eligible voters try to learn the truth of our forests.  (I write at this time about forest products and timber people, but ranchers, farmers, fishermen, miners, and all other citizens that make a living from land and natural resources are being removed from their land, starved from their businesses, and stripped of their independence.  Fighting back is so expensive as to overwhelm us, while our first worry is the more immediate need to provide for their families).  This is happening because there is so little effort by the rest of the "Free" citizens of this country to help bring justice and wisdom back into the actions of the government.  This is the subject of my article.

            I am well aware of the dishonor and deceit exhibited, and violations of our constitutional rights committed, by members of our government, both elected and appointed.  I am angered and disgusted by the mistreatment of "We, the People," at the hands of socialistic bureaucrats saying that they are "only doing their jobs."  I hate being cheated out of my investments and being given an ultimatum to, "comply with costly property-control edicts of the government or face fines and imprisonment."  The financial return on our land-based resources is being held hostage by these "regulators" of land control.  (Remember, one of the first things done by Castro in his "Revolution" was to seize control of the land and its resources). 

            But... the main point of my article is to speak of the Death of Honor; and the Desertion of Our Children... by the people of "We, the People," who disregard all the situations described in this article.  I feel a large degree of anger and disgust because of the hundreds of thousands of People who feel that they don't have to do anything!  Where is your honor if you proclaim, "It doesn't do any good to write letters!  Or vote!  Or make phone calls!"  Where is the human care and love for your children and grand-children when you say, "I don't have to do anything!"? 

            Forest Service people take private timber by fraud, and pay for it only after being forced to do so by a judge. 

            Forest Service people take timber from my family's land, admit having done so, ignore witnesses of the fact, and then deny our claim saying that they don't know where the logs went!

            Forest Service people take down a 15 year old boy to the ground and question him for twenty minutes at the points of two M-16 rifles!

            Forest Service person(s) trespass, spy on and video film a woman and her children through their window without a warrant or probable cause!

            A old man, combat veteran of WW II, is repeatedly harassed with firearms, and forced to tear down and burn his home; a 10 x 12 foot mining cabin!!  Even though the FS had proof that it was on private land!

            A judge tells a citizen that "He" doesn't allow the Constitution in "His" court!  "If you quote the Constitution one more time in my court, I'll hold you in contempt of court!”

            Armed "Officers" of California Forestry force all land owners, that sell any forest products, to pay certified foresters and biologists tens of thousand of dollars to prepare time consuming and nonsensical plans in order to use their own land.  The taking of control of private assets, land or otherwise, is still confiscation. 

            Do WE not do anything because it is not our property, not our ox being gored!!??

            If We... can only muster only 40% of the eligible voters to even show up, why should we be indignant that Clinton was elected by less than 20% of the eligible voters?  If only 10.2% of the teenage eligible voters bothered to vote, is that what "We, the People" have taught them? 

            Where are we teaching honor, morality, respect, and optimism for the future...?  If we do not give our young citizens the education, self-confidence, self-respect and the realistic goals for the future that they need, we have failed to provide for them.  We have deserted their minds, bodies, and spirits!

            My father fought battles in the seas, and hundreds of thousands of other men and women have endured war, to provide us preservation of our opportunities for freedom.  What are "We" going to do for our children?  Sell them out to the socialistic-minded bureaucrats that want you to believe that they have these almighty powers? 

            Will we allow them to remove us from the land, concentrate us in cities, and prepare us to be subdued wards of the government?  It seems that some modern women are more worried about practicing their profanity to be like the men; and too many men are too busy preening their pony-tails and picking their earrings, (to look like some machine gun-wielding movie star), to be involved in  affairs of freedom for our children.

            I don't believe that We, the People, have the right to pretend that these ever-increasing numbers of violations of "the other guy's rights" don't involve us.   Are you willing to give up your home and property because some "Glorified" biologist with nothing at risk, says the salamanders, rats, and owls are more important than your children?    Would you do something to protect your children from a burglar?  From a rapist?  Why not from thieves of their future happiness and freedom?

            We have lived in relative peace and quiet due to the sacrifice and work of many other people... the parts and pieces of the houses we live in; the blacktop to drive our cars on; the food that is delivered to our nearby stores; the power for our lights and our play toys; and many other benefits that are available to us because we are part of the United States of America.  As stated in the excerpts of the Declaration of Independence written above... "...it is their Right, it is their Duty, ..." to do something?   

            We have an obligation to our children; to inform them that there can be a good future; one with preserved freedoms, but it must be earned!  We have a duty to do something!  We don't have the right to just "do nothing."  There is no written Constitution that can provide you with all these rights and freedoms without "We, the People" applying some manner of forceful efforts to ensure them!

            In the closing of the of the Constitutional Convention following the writing of the U. S. Constitution Benjamin Franklin was asked,

            "What have we wrought?

            He answered, "...a Republic, if you can keep it."

                                                                                                James A. Waddell

                                    (2009, now of Roseville, CA)   Happy Camp, CA   1996

                                                            Life-long resident of Happy Camp, CA, except for

                                                            3 years U.S. Army, Karuk Indian, Former Timber

                                                            Manager, Freelance Photographer & Writer.