"Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily lives, and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom." - John F. Kennedy

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must undergo the fatigue of supporting it. - Thomas Paine

 The Bucket Stands 3-16-06    Eureka Log Haul 1-25-03          

The Power of Prayer Underscored in Ohio’s farm country at the Darby Farmland Rally! 11-23-03

 Klamath Falls                  Darby Farmland Rally   No Darby Refuge

Julie Kay Smithson

"Zane, thank you so much. Thank you. It is great to be with you today. I tell you there is nowhere I'd rather be, then right here with the people who share the values I hold so dear. And that is protecting our private property and our God given Constitutional rights. Thank you so much for the hard work... Thank you so much for the hard work that you have invested in saving the Darby Plains from the kind of destruction that we're seeing back in the west under government control.

"I'm chairman of the forestry subcommittee in the House, and right now, this year so far, we have burned more board feet of timber than we have ever logged off the National Forests in the history of this country. And, so when we think about what they have envisioned for the Darby Plains, we don't want to see that kind of waste, ruin, and destruction come to this most blessed and beautiful and productive farmland, and I join you in fighting to preserve it. Not preserve it by government edict, but preserve it from the ravages of government control.

"I do want to tell you I talked to Representative Deborah Pryce before I came out here, and she really cares about this issue and is opposed to the Refuge, and I know she will be working on your behalf, and I would encourage you to stay in touch with her. I know that this is being pushed in the Senate. I think that is exceedingly unfortunate, and it is exceedingly unfortunate that one of my own Party's members is pushing it, but he's doing what he feels is right, only there are a number of you who know that it's not right to take someone off their land and to try to put it in a government status.

"But you gotta remember there are two houses in Congress, the Senate and the House, and maybe what is put together in the Senate can be clearly undone in the House. So I would encourage you... I would strongly encourage you to work very closely with Congresswoman Deborah Pryce and Congressman John Boehner. They are really, really concerned about what is going on.

"I want to ask if this sounds familiar to you.

"He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has obstructed the administration of justice. He has erected a multitude of new offices and has sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. For imposing taxes on us without our consent."

"Does anyone know where that came from? Does it sound familiar today? Yes, you're right. It came from the Declaration of Independence. And I read that to you to encourage you about the fact that this kind of action by a tyrant, a tyrannical government is not new to America. But what was new to the civilization at that time was that people loved their land so much; they loved their Constitutional Rights so much, the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, all the amendments. Especially the Fifth Amendment, to protect us from unconstitutional taking of private property, that they took up arms and they fought from tree to tree. And they overturned the most powerful government in the world at that time - Great Britain - and America was born.

"Now, here in Darby, at the Darby Plains, we are experiencing a new rebirth of freedom. You say freedom can never be reborn unless the people take up the concern and start fighting themselves. You can never really trust the politicians to pack your water for ya. You gotta understand that when the people will lead the politicians will follow. And the fact is... and the fact is you've got to be armed with such a strong following and such a commitment, that the politicians have no choice but to follow you.

"Now, the fact is that this isn't just a political exercise. The fact is we're fighting for our land here on the Darby Plains. It's very interesting that Ohio was opened up right after the Revolutionary War. In my husband's book, Wayne Hage's book, Storm Over The Rangelands, my husband goes into the fact that much of the land in Ohio was given as payment to the Revolutionary War leaders, if they would just come out and settle in Ohio. But in that first expansion of settlement, the Darby Plains was bypassed because it was mosquito infested, and, you know, the graveyards here will demonstrate the fact that many families died from malaria and mosquito related diseases, and they had no way to fight it. But yet they continued to fight to reclaim the land from the mosquitoes and put it into this productive farmland.

"Now, what does the Fish and Wildlife Service wanna do? They wanna return it to mosquito infested farmland, mosquito infested wetlands. It makes absolutely no sense at all. And the taking of private property only makes sense when you really understand the big picture which my husband will explain to you a little bit later as to why the government is taking our land. It doesn't meet the test of common sense, does it, that we would want to take good farmland out of production and give it to the mosquitoes. It doesn't make sense at all. But the fact is that America will become much weaker. America's national security is at peril unless we're able to feed and sustain ourselves. As we know all wealth comes from the land. And we either must mine, mill, or harvest from this land, or we will become a poor and third world nation.

"America is the greatest nation in the world simply because we were able to take that God-given creative energy that comes from God the Father and be able to employ it by working the land, and bringing out of the land and off the land, the wealth of this land that made America a nation that has the highest standard of living in the history of civilization. It's our land that did it and we love our land, and we love the opportunity that this land has given us, and that America has given us.

"Now, what the Fish and Wildlife Service is doing here is costing us that opportunity, and wee're not going to go down without a fight and we're not gonna to go down. We're gonna save this farmland together.

"I'm telling you that your words and your actions must resonate beginning from here all the way to Washington D.C. so that the next president of the United States will hear and understand what the people of the Darby Plains intend for the future of their land. And that George Bush, in governing, his next Interior Department will be able to say to them, "Forget the Darby Plains. We're not gonna go in on that one."

"You know, I've gotta say that like my friend J. C. Watts says, let's never get discouraged with the fact that exceedingly unfortunate things happen to good people like you. Let's never forget that there have been other wars like this in America that we have won. We must never give in to the luxury of being discouraged. We must never give in to the luxury of being tired in this battle for our land. "When my husband and I were married, we took our honeymoon in Gettysburg. And we walked Pickett's Charge together, where the Southern Army charged the Northern Army and it was a very, very bloody and difficult battle. We also went to the battlefield of Fredericksburg. And there we stood on Mary's Hill and National Cemetery where many of those Confederate and Union soldiers are buried in death side by side. You know, we couldn't help but remember the price thatgotta retake the land. has been paid for our freedom and our private property rights. We couldn't help but remember what it states in the Declaration of Independence, that "We hold these truths to be self evident."

"It doesn't have to be proven in court, folks. These truths don't have to be backed up by rules and regulations. " These truths are self evident. That all men are created equal. And they have been endowed by the Creater with certain inalienable rights. And those rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Now within the "pursuit of happiness" is private property.

"And our Declaration of Independence goes on to state that "governments are instituted therefore among men deriving their just power from the consent of the governed," and you are the consent of the governed, aren't you? And, you have not willingly given this kind of power to the Fish and Wildlife Service and you are not willingly going to give up your land. The idea that you are a "willing seller" is poppycock.

"Having a little bit of trouble with my papers here, but there is something I want to share with you. And when all is said and done, the fact is, that as this nation was reborn with God's blessing, this nation must once again seek God's blessing for the restoration of our freedoms in this great land, for the recovery of this land. And as God said in the Old Testament many times to the Israelites, you gotta retake the land. Well, the command is here again: we gotta retake our land. We cannot lose the land in the Darby Plains and we must retake the land that the government is already beginning to take over. Don't be fooled by the fact that the Nature Conservancy is in here working with people on a "willing buyer, willing seller" basis. The Nature Conservancy is nothing more than the Federal Government's real estate broker. And don't you forget it.

"Now, I want you to remember one thing, that we must employ the blessings of the Creator again on our land. And it seems strange that a politician would be stainding up here talking to you about these things, but the two are inseparable, liberty and God's blessing. The fact is, that this year, I'm going be running out a bill that will askk for not only a National Day of Prayer, but a National Day of Prayer, Fasting and Repentence for our national sins. As a nation, America has strayed from the path that was set forth by our founding fathers. And between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, there were 200 such proclamations calling for a national day of prayer, fasting, and repentence of our national sins. Since then, there has not been such a proclamation, but, pray for me. I will be bringing another one to the House floor this year.

"Now, I care less about what church you go to, or whether you go to church at all, but I do care about the fact that, as a people, we must fall to our knees as George Washington did and other great leaders, in times of peril, and in times of prosperity, and not forget the God who created this great nation. And I do wanna say that back during the Civil War when this nation was torn apart, Abraham Lincon issued such a proclamation on August 12, 1861. I want to read this proclamation to you, the last proclamation asking for a national day of prayer, fasting, and humiliation. It reads,

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bountys of heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, in wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God, and we have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied, and enriched, and strengthened us. And we have mainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace and too proud to pray to the God that made us."

"That was by Abraham Lincoln, a president who was not ashamed to stand up and ask for God's blessing on this nation. And we shouldn't be either.

"You know, in closing I do want to say that as my husband and I stood on Mary's hill in Fredericksburg, we could just imagine that cold December day of December 12th, 1861 when the Northern forces were gathered behind the Rappahannock river, and as the Northern forces moved through Fredericksburg, the Southern forces took cover behind a stone wall under the command of not only Robert E. Lee, but Stonewall Jackson. And they ensconsced themselves behind the cover of the stone wall. And up a ridge of an open meadow, finally after two days, came the Union forces. And it was rainy, and it was cold as you can imagine it would be in December. But, one by one, the Union soldiers, many of them fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen years old were picked off and killed by the Southern forces ensconsced behind the stone wall. But, they kept coming, they didn't turn back. They didn't give up. They kept coming. And through the evening they kept fighting. Finally at nightfall they stopped and they began to resume the fighting the next day. There was a horrible toll in the Union forces. And the Confederates suffered some losses also. But, between the battle of Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, and Chancellorsville, there was 100,000 lives lost.

"And it was interesting as we walked down Mary's hill, and we looked at the terracing on the National Cemetary, we noted that there were about 14,000 crosses or nameplates that indicated the name of the soldiers who had fallen. And then it dawned on us. Yes, there were 100,000 that were buried there, but they were never identified. So, unknown soldiers by the tens of thousands are buried there at Fredericksburg in the battle for freedom. In the battle to be able to mind and take responsibility for our own destiny. In the battle for property rights. In the battle for raising our children as we saw fit. And we're reaping the bounty of that great cost. Think of it. 100,000 lives were lost. 100,000. Now there were that many families that never knew what happened to their loved ones. They just didn't come home.

"But even worse, were those who came home limbless, or sightless, or even worse, mindless because of the horrors of battle. Now, let's always keep that in perspective when we think of the battle that we have in front of us today. We can never, never, never, never give up. This is a test of who we are in this battle.

"Now I want to also share with you in World War II, up until that time, during war, it had always been an unwritten policy that nations at war with each other that they never bombed the seat of government or they didn't bombed the palace. But, during World War II, the Nazis bombed Parliament. And during that very sad time, Winston Churchill was walking through the bombed out Parliament buildings in England with some of his aids. And they stopped. He was very sad. One of his aids said to him, "What kind of people would do this to us?" And Winston Churchill looked at his aide and he said, "You know, it doesn't matter what kind of people would do this to us. What really matters is, what kind of people are we? Can we sustain the battle?"

"And after that, Winston Churchill took to the airwaves during World War II. Some of us oldtimers will remember the fact that he did that. And he kept encouraging the Brits to never, never, never, never give up. He would go on the air and talk about what happened during the day, but he would always caution his Brits never, never, never give up. He said, "this may be our darkest hour, but this may be our finest hour, because it will show what we are really made of. So, never, never, never give up."

"Well, he kept that up. Finally the Allied forces joined the Brits and you know the last of the story. We won World War II. But, after World War II, Winston Churchill was called to one of the Ivy League schools over here in America. And at great expense he came over. After a long and flourishing introduction, Winston Churchill took to the podium, a tired, old warrior. And he stood in front of that podium and this is what he said: "Never, never, give up. Never give up. Never quit. In the face of duty, honor, and country, we can never, never quit." And then after one minute of speech, he turned around and sat down.

"I don't we can say any more than that. Let's never give up. Together, we will fight and win this. May God richly bless you and may God bring us a victory. Thank you."

Transcripts courtesy of sauropod - Thank you very much.