Land Grab
Some of the radicals down at the South End Marina were discussing the take-over of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge down in eastern Oregon. They had started down by the boatsheds but had ended up in the Pilot Lounge where they could fuel their anger with alcohol. Walter, as usual, was the most vocal. “We ought to go down there and join these fellow patriots,” he cried after a couple of rum and cokes. “Show some solidarity!”
J.D. shook his head. “Don’t count on me, Walt. That’s another Waco in the making. The Feds are waiting now, but when they get bored, they’ll go in and clean up. Gonna be a bloodbath for sure.”
“It’s people like you, J.D., who let the government push us around. All these folks want is their land given back to the people.” A few heads nodded, another round was ordered and J.D. said he had to get home. “My turn to babysit the grandkids,” he said meekly and Walter’s laughter followed him out the door.
I was parked at the end of the bar with Guitar Bob, nursing a beer. Maybe it was the cold I’d been fighting for a few days that made me ornery. “Why don’tcha take over the State Park?” I asked the assembled militiamen. “Get our land back, why don’tcha?” Guitar Bob raised a glass in a salute.
Walter, always up for a challenge, shouted, “That’s the best idea you’ve had since I knew you, Skeeter. You gonna come with us?”
“Walter, I got some bad news for you. We already own the park. And we own that Wildlife Refuge down in Oregon too. If you got the park back, who you gonna have run it? Fix the roads? Clean up the toilets? All that stuff? You??”
“Power to the People!” Guitar Bob shouted menacingly. “Off the pigs! Remember the Alamo!!” Bob had recently fallen off the wagon and to make up for lost time, he’d maybe a had a few too many. “Don’t tread on ME! you %#@**!#”
Well, as you can imagine, things went swiftly downhill from there. Last I heard Bob was 86’d from the Pilot Lounge. Walter couldn’t muster enough manpower to take the men’s washroom, much less the State Park. And I took my head cold home where I fell asleep watching the evening news which probably explained my troubled dreams.
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