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Thursday, February 11, 2016

Boney Shwa Wildlife Refuge




I mean, who in their right minds chooses to have an armed stand-off with the entire Federal government at a place called

Bad Luck Wildlife Refuge

or

Misfortune Wildlife Refuge

or maybe 

Adversity Park

or, worse,

Protestors'  Misery?


I mean (again),  Malheur means "adversity" or "bad luck" in French, so the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon is the lastest place I would have gone to on January 2, 2016 to protest.
Just saying.
I would have picked a place like Boney Shwa Wildlife Refuge, properly known as Bonne Choix Wildlife Refuge, since Bonne Choix in Quebec is used for something like "good choice!!"
(We used to go to the Bonne Choix grocery mart in St. Hippolyte, Quebec,  all the time; we'd say we're goin' to the boney shwa, and est-ce que tu désire quelq'chose? or usually you, toi, quelq'chose?)

There was a Mr. Finicum was among the protestors, and he was eventually shot dead by an officer of the law... apparently having forgotten that when guns are outlawed, only outlaws  and  the police will have guns.

I read about the stand-off since Day 1, and it seemed to me Mr. Finicum was a martyr who had found his cause and was in search of his martyrdom,  but forgive me if that is too harsh. It seemed that way to me well before he died. He was a good man and father, but he was intemperate when it came to the Bureau of the Interior's land use policies.

Now we see in the Toledo Blade
http://www.toledoblade.com/Nation/2016/02/10/FBI-says-it-has-surrounded-last-occupiers-at-Oregon-refuge.html
...  The last four armed occupiers of a national wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon said they would turn themselves in Thursday morning after the FBI surrounded them and they yelled at law enforcement officers in armored vehicles to back off and prayed with supporters over an open phone line.

The tense standoff between law enforcement officers and the four occupiers played out on the Internet beginning Wednesday night via a phone line being livestreamed by an acquaintance of occupier David Fry.
Fry, 27, of Blanchester, Ohio, sounded increasingly unraveled as he continually yelled, at times hysterically, at what he said was an FBI negotiator. “You’re going to hell. Kill me. Get it over with,” he said. “We’re innocent people camping at a public facility, and you’re going to murder us.”
“The only way we’re leaving here is dead or without charges,” Fry said, who told the FBI to “get the hell out of Oregon.” ...

"Unraveled" seems to be the right word.

I like the idea of praying over an open phone line.
What is the litany of this technology?
All the Saints of Heaven.... join us in a conference call!
All the holy martyrs...  join us in a conference call!
All the holy angels... join us in a conference call!
and so on.

You need to have been a Catholic back in the mid-20th century to know the right way to intone such a litany: Omnes Sancti, orate pro nobis! 



I hope you do not think me to be harsh. Life is harsh... and it's getting harsher.

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