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Freedom Action of the Week
Email List Archive
Free-Market.Net's F r e e d o m A c t i o n o f t h e W e e k
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Edited by Thomas L. Knapp. To subscribe or unsubscribe to this and
other lists, click to: http://www.free-market.net/features/lists/
----- Featured Action of the Week -----
Fourth week of July, 2001
Wet your whistle and speak out for the Klamath farmers
Sometimes it's hard to tell the players without a scorecard, and the
situation in Klamath Falls, Oregon, is no exception. You would have read
about this situation earlier, but I wanted to investigate and make sure
that I wasn't asking you to do something wrong.
The problem, of course, is an accretion of welfare programs over the last
century. Of all the groups that rely on government subsidies and programs,
farmers are perhaps the most ubiquitous and the most able to capitalize on
our natural sympathy for those who work the land. I wanted to make sure
that the farmers weren't just annoyed at having a handout cut off.
They aren't.
To summarize the situation, the farmers in the Klamath Basin have relied,
for more than a century, on water from the lake that dominates their area.
Without that water, farming is an untenable proposition. A century ago,
with private money, a canal was dug to allow irrigation from the lake to
reach local farms. Having accomplished this, the farmers secured water
rights for area agriculture in perpetuity.
At some point, the federal government installed a lock allowing officials
to control the flow of water into this irrigation system. This year, that
lock was closed on behalf of the sucker fish, a species that has, at
various times, been ignored, subjected to eradication programs, and, now,
brought under the Endangered Species Act.
Don't ask me if the sucker really is endangered. I hear there's one born
every minute.
In any case, my concerns were allayed after I investigated the situation:
the farmers aren't on the dole. They paid for their water, and they paid
for the mechanisms to deliver that water. The only thing the taxpayer is
footing the bill for is the mechanism by which they are now being _robbed_
of their water. And that just isn't right.
The farmers have stood on their rights, and they've done us all a service
by defying federal officials. If you work for the federal government, don't
bother visiting Klamath Falls. You aren't welcome there.
This week, do what you can to help the farmers who, in standing up for
their own rights, have stood up for everyone else's as well.
A Free-Market.Net partner, American Policy Center
(http://www.americanpolicy.org/sledgehammer/main.htm}, has information on
contacting the president and Oregon's governor, John Kitzhaber, to seek
their cooperation in getting the water released to the dying farms of
Klamath Basin.
Jeff Head, of "Give Me Liberty or Give me Death"
{http://www.myplanet.net/jeffhead/dadmisc/}, has created a petition urging
an end to the government-created drought. Join 17,000 others who have
already signed it {http://www.petitiononline.com/klamath/}.
Finally, show your support by letting the farmers know whose side you're
on. At least one activist, Marni Morrow, has been injured -- her leg broken
when a horse kicked her as federal thugs rode through the protesting crowd
in a cavalry-charge-style attempt to break it up. Cards, letters and
flowers can be sent to her (and, by proxy, to the others making their brave
stand) at:
Margaret "Marni" Morrow
Merrill West Medical Center - Room 2509A
2865 Daggett Road
Klamath Falls, OR 97603
For more on this story -- and continuing coverage of events in Klamath
Falls -- see:
The Sierra Times
http://www.sierratimes.com/
American Policy Center action alert on the Klamath situation:
http://www.americanpolicy.org/sledgehammer/main.htm
Petition for an end to the withholding of water:
http://www.petitiononline.com/klamath/
Sierra Times article on Marni Morrow:
http://www.sierratimes.com/archive/files/jul/21/armm072101.htm
"Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death:"
http://www.myplanet.net/jeffhead/dadmisc/
Action of the Week archive:
http://www.free-market.net/features/list-archives/activism/maillist.html
----- Alternate Actions -----
The Freedom Action of the Week Club: Commit yourself to doing one
action per week. If the action above doesn't appeal to you, consider
one of the alternate actions at:
http://www.free-market.net/features/action/
If you know about another action or organize one of your own, e-mail
Tom at tlknapp@free-market.net so we can tell the rest of the group
next week.
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