A Mesquite Branch

Having common enemies is not always a recipe for making friends. Life has taught me that globalization and excessive big government control comes in various forms. These forms appear to be from opposite ends of the political arena. They fight against each other in public for all to see much like professional wrestlers, and then meet afterward in the same bar to count the bounty they have taken from an unsuspecting public. I don’t consider myself a leftist. When I hear major candidates, people like Chavez, Castro and perhaps Lopez-Obrador speak of solutions I tend to back away. The things they say sound good, but the reality of these regimes is often more of the same in a new skin. On one hand we have global mega-corporations telling us how to live and forcing us to comply, on the other the government becomes the mega-corporation telling us how to live and forcing us to comply.

When I heard what I interpreted as support for these regimes on Narconews, I backed away. But I came around on occasion and listened to Marcos’ statements and read Conroy’s writings and decided some of us share common ground in spite of our apparent differences.

Small scale socialism, locally controlled, or as subcomandante Marcos might call it, a government from down below seems a good thing. Near my home in Texas, ranchers and farmers want this also. We too are slaves of mega-corporations and large government. While many of us are white, blacks and indigenous Americans are represented in our numbers as well. We wouldn’t call this shared belief socialism or think of ourselves as being leftists. Perhaps we call ourselves libertarians, or anarchists. Perhaps some of us have given up on political solutions and just try to live without attracting attention from the oppressive powers that be. But let me assure you; there are many of us who detest things done in our name and resist those that do them. Some of us are in prison for resisting. It is not Mexico, or Russia, or China, or Iran with the world’s largest prison population; it is the United States of America, both by gross numbers and also as a percentage of the population. Most of the people in those prisons are American citizens.

Our government from below or as we would say, of the people, will look different than yours. We won’t be growing coca leaves or living in the jungle. But, like you, we do want the right to work the ground and to be good stewards of this planet. Some guy or gal in the Northwest territories will do it different than we, but he/she too wants the same—the freedom to live a good life, to be respected and to respect his neighbors, their property, and the planet that nourishes us. Another in England or Ireland desires the same, as does another in Iraq or Iran, or Russia, or China, or Africa. Given the opportunity, each of us will do things in our own way and should be allowed to do so without some other culture or a global monetary system/global government intruding into our ability to do so.

Yes, history is full of examples where land was stolen, property taken and people killed, but these did not begin with the European invasion of this continent. Aboriginal Americans fought over territory and killed each other long before white men showed up. The past can’t be changed, but we do have today and today we can treat each other fairly.

I am pure ass Texan. I may look like bush, walk like him, even talk with a similar accent. But do not mistake me as your enemy. I am opposed to what he does in a way you can’t be. It hits close to home with me. I am not alone in this thinking. Each and every day I drive by fields and watch white and black and Mexican men work side by side in fields and pastures, struggling to do right by all. We are taxed excessively and have no say on what the tax money taken from us is spent upon. The price of the products we raise is fixed on us as it is on you. Regulations favor large corporate producers and make it increasingly difficult for small time farmers and ranchers to survive. Those of us thinking ourselves independent are in reality contract workers for large corporations and dependant on our government and its subsidy checks. Our monetary system is a farce, a tool used to control and oppress us.

This American minority I am a part of has no desire to tell you how to live, nor do we want to rob you of your resources. We are denied the right to sell our products to you at fair prices, or to buy yours, also at fair prices. We hire people from your country at our own risk and pay them wages equal to those we ourselves earn. And we are denied the legal right to emigrate to and work in your countries for a fair wage also.

I have written another book called Ruminations from the Garden. Unfortunately, I found no traditional publisher that would print the book without major revisions, so for now it will be produced by a pay-for-publication press. I will post information on how to get a copy through the Internet as soon as it is available. Should anyone desire a preview, send an e-mail address and I will gladly e-mail you a free digital file of the book.

unrepentantcowboy@yahoo.com

Blesssings be upon you,

Don Henry Ford Jr.