Working for the Government — the wind from the right

An extremist is someone who doesn’t recognize common ground even when standing on it. — Anonymous Curmudgeon

By 1980 political and social change had been blowing from the Left for over 15 years. Now the wind was shifting to the Right. This would directly affect me and those close to me.

Reactionary groups with names like Christian Patriots, Posse Comitatus, Township Movement and Militia Movement developed in response to increasing progressiveness. Civil rights, free speech, women’s rights, gay rights and environmental awareness came from the Left. The rightist groups were founded on a fundamentalist interpretation of both the Bible and the Constitution.

At least four political acts gave further cause for extremism.

The first two affected residents and employees of Alaska. In 1978 the Antiquities Act blocked 56 million acres of Alaska land from development. The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 took 100 million more acres. There was much public resentment. Animosity was mistakenly directed against the more visible of state workers, especially those of the Division of Parks, where I worked.

Although these were federal laws, many members of the public were misinformed and their anger was fed by self-proclaimed spokespersons promoting followings and financial gain. Negative encounters between state workers and the public was often a result of this misplaced enmity.

The Pick-Sloan Act of 1944 affected farm families and rural communities in the Midwest. Pick-Sloan was legislated to control flooding on the Missouri River and provide hydroelectric power and irrigation with dams. The legislation had support from state, local and federal governments as well as construction and energy industries; but many farmers opposed it.

By the late 1960s Pick-Sloan was condemning farm land in central North Dakota for canals to transmit water from the Missouri River to eastern North Dakota. Farmers were forced off their land with inadequate compensation. There was no benefit to irrigation near the Missouri because irrigation degraded local soil and the canals cut through and drained local aquifers.

Resistance to Pick-Sloan pitted a coalition of farmers, environmental groups and rightist groups against government and business interests.

Then came the grain embargo.

In 1980 the U.S. stopped the sale of grain to the Soviet Union because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Soviet citizens went hungry and many American farmers went broke. The embargo had no affect on Soviet military action, but caused a recession in U.S. agriculture when grain prices dropped.

Thus began the greatest period of attrition in Rural America since the Dust Bowl.

Many farmers went broke and banks foreclosed on their land. My father was a farmer who knew hard times. He was critical of the overuse of debt by many farmers — and of the eagerness of many loan agencies to lend.

Because my job with the state was seasonal, I spent the winter of 1984-85 on the family farm in North Dakota. With the depressed farm economy and Pick-Sloan, I witnessed a lot of bitterness.

One of my brothers was an activist farmer and an effective spokesperson against the Pick-Sloan. He had a master’s degree in farm economics so the state of North Dakota contracted him to help other farmers reorganize their debts to avoid foreclosure. Right wing groups then considered him a government employee and put his name on their “enemies of the people list.”

That’s like Rush Limbaugh being attacked by the Tea Party because he contracts with the U.S. Government to broadcast to Armed Forces Radio.

Although nothing did come of the “enemies list,” it might have been worse. My family members and friends used non-violent means and negotiation to defend themselves against the foreclosures and condemnation, but there were armed conflicts between rightists and the federal government. One of first was the Gordon Kahl incident.

Kahl was opposed to the income tax, advocated armed resistance to government and associated with a number of extremist groups. Many who were more moderate than Kahl were sympathetic of rightist positions, but not their methods. On Feb. 13, 1983, Kahl and others were involved in a shootout with U.S. Marshalls near Medina, North Dakota and two agents were killed. Kahl fled to Arkansas and was killed in another shootout by a sheriff who later died of wounds.

Four souls — four sons, fathers, husbands and citizens — died as a result. Medina, North Dakota has never been the same.

Some in North Dakota were critical of both the extremists and the feds. My father — skilled gunner and activist — blamed both sides. He said “I don’t care for the Right Wingers — there’s better ways to solve those problems — but the government went about it all wrong.”

More violence followed. The standoff at Ruby Ridge cost three lives. The debacle at the Mount Carmel Center near Waco Texas took 85 lives. The bombers of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City murdered 168 government workers and children in 1995. The perpetrators considered it to be revenge for Ruby Ridge and Waco.

Tim Johnson is a computer programmer who lives in Palmer and is owner of AKWebsoft. Read more at TJ49.com.