Henry David Thoreau once said, “That government is best which governs least," this statement is true because the more the government is involved, the more complicated life becomes for the people of the United States. In the New York Times article, “A Defiant Rancher Savors the Audience That Rallied to His side”, author Adam Nagourney wrote about a rancher named Cliven Bundy who has been grazing his cattle on public land in Nevada since 1993, and his family has done the same since 1870. There has been no issues with grazing on public land in the past, but since The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has changed the rules on using the public land, Cliven Bundy is being fined. Bundy owes more than $1 million in fines for the reason that he refuses
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If the federal government was not stood up to, Mr. Bundy’s rights would have been seized. To prove this point, just look at the many mistakes of other countries where they let their government go out of control. Since Bundy had many supporters who held their ground, they were able to suppress the Bureau of Land Management. The BLM and other observers were displeased and they considered him a “domestic terrorist” because many of Bundy’s supporters were armed (Nagourney 2). The second amendment of the Bill of Rights guarantees the right to keep and bear arms. Due to the second amendment and the legality of owning a firearm, there should not have been any controversy on whether there were armed men or not. Thoreau said,“Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?”. Bundy is trying to restrain the BLM with the purpose of amending the over-reach of government. He wants to make it clear that it is wrong for the government to bully and control the people of the United …show more content…
However, just because there are that many people paying fees does not make it right. ”A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then," Thoreau stated. The majority of the rangers in the US are paying fees. Bundy is being a non-conformist by not paying the government fees to graze on public land. By not conforming to the majority, he is taking assertive but necessary steps to place power back into the hands of the people rather than the hands of the government. The majority of the people back down to the government which allows them to control their lives. The government is not meant to have a lot of power because when a powerful government is overly involved in the US citizen’s lives, the government begins to
If the federal government was not stood up to, Mr. Bundy’s rights would have been seized. To prove this point, just look at the many mistakes of other countries where they let their government go out of control. Since Bundy had many supporters who held their ground, they were able to suppress the Bureau of Land Management. The BLM and other observers were displeased and they considered him a “domestic terrorist” because many of Bundy’s supporters were armed (Nagourney 2). The second amendment of the Bill of Rights guarantees the right to keep and bear arms. Due to the second amendment and the legality of owning a firearm, there should not have been any controversy on whether there were armed men or not. Thoreau said,“Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?”. Bundy is trying to restrain the BLM with the purpose of amending the over-reach of government. He wants to make it clear that it is wrong for the government to bully and control the people of the United …show more content…
However, just because there are that many people paying fees does not make it right. ”A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then," Thoreau stated. The majority of the rangers in the US are paying fees. Bundy is being a non-conformist by not paying the government fees to graze on public land. By not conforming to the majority, he is taking assertive but necessary steps to place power back into the hands of the people rather than the hands of the government. The majority of the people back down to the government which allows them to control their lives. The government is not meant to have a lot of power because when a powerful government is overly involved in the US citizen’s lives, the government begins to