Addressing Col. Parker’s letter (The Citizen, April 4, 2015): It’s amazing how one can sneak race into an issue about constitutional rights and veterans’ plight. I do not defend the man, especially a bigoted man, but I do defend his right to be able to protect the land he claims ancestry rights to since 1877.
If Mr. Bundy should be deprived of his right of legal recourse based on racist statements, then Al Sharpton should be living in a shoe box, made to pay his back taxes, and not be standing in a position of favor next to a President of the United States.
Clive Bundy has a 20-year dispute and allegedly owes the federal government $1 million; they shot his cattle and used a Taser on his son. Al Sharpton reportedly owes $4 million in back taxes yet he stands in a position of favor next to President Obama. I’m sure he feels safe from Tasers in this position.
Col. Parker, I hope the time it took you to dispute my letter didn’t take you away from helping those in the poor and black communities to gain education, jobs, and life training like I had until my mid-sixties. Please save the race card until it is really called for.
Incidentally, congressional representatives from Texas, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada are now looking into federal government infringement of their respective state sovereignty land use. Nevada, with the support of its governor, has passed a law supporting Clive Bundy’s claim; this law strips the federal government of state rights to land and water.
Next, for the record, Brandon Raub, a former Marine, as in decorated and honorably discharged, not as in inactive, was neither charged nor arrested. He was detained based partially on a statement from his former platoon leader.
If an American citizen can be persecuted and detained based on the word of a “former” platoon leader, then it stands to reason Sgt. Bergdhal should have already faced a firing squad based on what his platoon leader and fellow soldiers reported.
But, then again, it served the present administration’s purposes to denigrate both the comments and the character of these platoon members. After all, five terrorists were at stake.
Col. Parker, really, if derogatory comments from those we commanded could be used as a basis to detain us, we both would probably never see daylight again.
As for “Operation Vigilant Eagle,” the Rutherford Institute, which gained Brandon Raub’s freedom, described a program called “Learning for Life” as a threat against veterans.
The article describes how Boy Scouts are being taught to defend against terrorist attacks. One simulated defense operation used United States Iraq war veterans as the premise. A New York Times article from May 13, 2009 also describes how Boy Scouts are being trained in arms and terrorist operations in conjunction with Homeland Security and FBI operations.
Lastly, our oath to defend this nation against all enemies, foreign and domestic, is not an oath to defend one man’s desire to change our country, regardless of his position. Be it through executive order or shunning constitutional law, this country is changing behind the scenes. These changes may eventually leads us down a path of lost rights and individual freedoms that we may no longer be able to regain.
Joel Kinsman
Peachtree City, Ga.
