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READERS’ FORUM

Comments under 300 words, please. We cannot engage in correspondence but do appreciate your contribution. We do not publish insults or attacks against other readers. Points should stand on their own merits. You are welcome to express your religious views but not to criticize the views of others. Our mission is to unify our readers, not divide them. Send comments here.

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OREGON PROTEST AND BULLET SELLERS
2016 Jan 11 from Steven Hanson
Hi Ed,
Enjoyed reading the latest edition. The Oregon issue can’t be solved by doing what they’re doing. It’s an issue of what property ownership means, and I can make a solid case against government ownership of anything. Property Rights exist because of the connection between a creature (people) and the domain and wealth it requires for its survival. The government isn’t a life-form. We are. It isn’t. Rights don’t apply to government, only to people.

With respect to the issue of holding the seller of the bullets liable for the buyer’s use is fascinating because it is wrong in so many ways. However, why don’t we just turn it around? Hold the companies that sell bullets to the government liable for the damages caused by the use of those bullets by police, military, etc.? What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, right?

How insane it is to hold one person responsible for the choices made by another. The crux of this issue is the insane idea that the responsibility and ownership of our choices belongs to someone else.

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IT’S TIME TO LEARN THE WORD ALLODIAL
2016 Jan 11 from John Dilday
Oregon is a repeat of feral public servants taking land and abridging un-a-lien-able rights to land. Read Websters 1828 Dictionary definition of allodium…. “in the United States most lands are allodial”
If land can be taken from the people so can all other rights, including life.

TO QUESTION THE WISDOM OF SEIZING A FEDERAL BUILDING IS TO BE ON THE GOVERNMENT’S SIDE, RIGHT?
2016 Jan 11 from Charity Jessop
Dear Mr. Griffin,
Sir, I am sort of disappointed in you, but maybe you have not talked to Ammon Bundy yourself? The government/media is really trying to down what those patriots are doing, if you haven’t noticed. The government we have can break all kinds of laws and get away with it. Must we just let them continue to illegally take people’s land away and not do anything? I believe they will continue doing it until the people stand up as a whole and say “NO MORE!”

Don’t you see what is going on? “They came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew.. so I turned my head.” I think you know what I am talking about. Please don’t tell me that you are listening to the government/ media!

GEG REPLY:
Hello Charity.
My view on this issue will appear as the editorial at the top of this news page – and it definitely is not the result of listening to the the government or the media. It has to do with the difference between fighting to win vs. fighting to lose. It is not about being willing to draw a line in the sand but knowing where to draw it. Thanks for writing – and for caring.

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WHAT REALLY HAPPENED AT THE BURNS, OREGON, PROTEST
2016 Jan 11 from Bill Goode.
Dear Mr Griffin, I have read your article, “Standoff in Oregon”. You have mischaracterized the Hammonds in saying they “… objected to their prison sentence but were not resisting.” I was at the 15 December 2015 meeting in Burns, Oregon, when Ammon Bundy and Ryan Payne helped establish the Harney County Committee of Safety. Since then I’m in touch with the chairman of that committee, as is Ammon. I was also at the protest in Burns, Oregon, 2 January 2016.

The protest was sponsored and led by a group called the 3 Percenters. As Ammon was announcing his intention to takeover the Wildlife Refuge, the leaders of the protest march made it very clear that Ammon’s intention was not their intention. They made it clear to everyone that what Ammon Bundy was suggesting had nothing whatsoever to do with the protest.

There were two distinctly different groups – 1) The 3 Percenters, leading and sponsoring the protest march and 2) The group lead by Ammon Bundy to takeover the Wildlife Refuge. I have known Dwight and his wife Susie Hammond since about last July 2015, when I became interested in helping them with their plight. I met with Dwight for about 4 days to draft an affidavit about the events he has suffered since 2001. I also met briefly with Steven Hammond.

To say Dwight was not resisting is not true. He has been widely characterized in the press as a coward, not willing to stand for his rights, but it’s not the case. Even as the protesters greeted the Hammonds in their front yard, Dwight told them his case was not about him, but about pursuing freedom in America.

Dwight declined to sign the affidavit that he and I wrote out of fear for himself and his family. He has received threats on his life. On or about 19 November 2015, Frank Papagni, prosecuting attorney against the Hammonds, expressed to Dwight and Steven, through their worthless attorneys, that if they did not cease communication with Ammon Bundy, they would be detained early and go to a less desirable prison. In addition, pain and suffering would be brought on their families. This is the reason Dwight has not fought hard against the charges brought against him. Steven is a much younger man and has been more amenable to going to prison.

I took the affidavit, that Dwight & I wrote, and rewrote it as my own affidavit attesting to what Dwight had told me. You can view it here.

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HOMELESS IN HAWAII
2016 Jan 9 from Ken Bradley
BonnieBonnie and I are back from two weeks in Honolulu. Oahu is experiencing a high rise and single-family building boom. Honolulu and Waikiki are going up scale and, if the trend continues, they will look like Rodeo Drive in the near future.

Crowds in Waikiki were heavy, and sometimes it was hard just to walk down the street. Hilton Hawaiian Village is putting up a new tower, Ritz Carlton is building a huge high rise in Waikiki, and it is sold out even before it’s finished, and the International Marketplace, the last tacky holdout to the upscaling is now being converted to 75 upscale shops.

Ala Moana shopping center is being expanded by building a new 5-level structure in the former Sears parking lot, and Ward Warehouse is being converted to a high-rise condo. Aloha Tower used to have tacky kiosks but is now the Mid-Pacific University.

With all this upscaling and building I’m wondering who in Oahu can afford to shop in all these existing and planned shops and live in the high rises. Certainly not the native Hawaiians who may be pushed out of Hawaii to places like Las Vegas that have a lower cost of living and a huge Hawaiian population already.