By David James Baker
Piñon Canyon is
simply a land grab and horrible abuse of power. It’s
damage
continues to be inflicted upon the
people of southern
Colorado since the Army started taking their land in the
early
1980s.
What has become known as “Piñon Canyon” in Colorado is
located near the
communities of La Junta and Trinidad.
It
includes high mesa grasslands and deep red rock canyons. All
were carved
and created over millions of years by the
slow
flowing Purgatoire River. This is a recent example of how leaders
of
an Army of the United States portends to
be the defender of
a free people. It has become the latest ribbon-ladened
emblem of
how our federal government
portends to serve the people who must
obey its laws but who itself is far
above them. It has
demonstrated this
clearly with its treatment of prisoners and its
treatment of civilians in
southern Colorado.
If you have
followed this ongoing situation you will see that average
law
abiding Americans have been abused,
neglected, and
intimidated by land speculators, defense contractors,
generals
who relish in the glory of their
positions and similar thinking
politicians now seek what they
euphemistically call “a deal”
something that is much
smaller but still in the hundreds of
thousands of acres.
A minority of political, military, and
business elites with the use of our
money and its power have
systematically
deceived and abused the people, cultures, customs
and habitats of
southeastern Colorado. More importantly
they
have on multiple occasion disobeyed the law and the will of
the people.
What has happened in Piñon Canyon
demonstrates to
this observer that apparently not even our Congress has the
power
to reign in these moneyed
interests.
Several years ago
official looking U.S. Army maps were apparently leaked.
These
maps (available at
www.pinoncanyon.com) reveal the military’s
interest that at one point was
considering up to 4.5 million
acres of
private and public lands. This is an enormous swath of
land that includes
the entire southeastern corner of
Colorado.
In hindsight, one can only wonder did they actually think
they
were going to get away with taking that? Or
were they
like real estate agents who double their expectation
before
setting on something significantly less but
unwilling
or unable to be honest about its dealings, even when they
include
its own citizenry?
One thing is for sure, the
Army, the Bush Administration, and now officials
of a new
administration are left practicing
the contemporary version of
“duck and cover” as they respond to the
questions of skeptical
members of congress
including Betsy Markey and John Salazar, both
are democrats of Colorado.
The Army’s human face on Piñon
Canyon has long been fuzzy to the general
public view. Whoever
first thought of
the idea of taking huge swaths of public and
ranch lands in Colorado and
giving it to the Army is likely far
from the
picture. The military’s methods have become a kind of
Chimera. It has
become an imaginary monster to those who
live
there. It has unlimited funds, the upper hand of federal laws and
is
made up of grotesquely disparate parts.
When one head is
killed or dies another rises.
It was true under the Bush
Administration and sadly it now appears to be
true under the
Obama administration as
well. That is until our leaders manifest
the will to stop this immediately
and forever.
The
justification for a huge taking of the people’s land in Piñon
Canyon
expansion took on new vigor under the
guise of a “War
on Terror”. This is a term that the new administration
has
thankfully retired. But the “terror on
terror” the Army
has waged in Colorado is one of obfuscation that protects
its
contractors and politicians with
uniformed blank stares looking
over laptops that arrive from the Colorado
Springs “Green Zone”
promising
economic growth for all who agree.
The Piñon
Canyon chimera had its origin in the lies of the 1980s when
the
Army first came to rural Colorado and
told the people
there that the land they sought was a necessity for a
nation,
that it would be good for the
community and that this one time
deal would never be used for “live fire.”
Some people moved
off their land in patriotic ways as personal sacrifice
for the
defense of a nation. Twenty years
hence their patriotism is
greatly subdued and as the lies they were told
have settled into
truth that is as pointed as
cactus, as hard as the rock that lays
at the bottom of this land in the
memories of what they have
already lost.
The Army continues to skirt the will of the
people that instituted a
funding ban on Piñon Canyon expansion.
It skirts
that law because it knows it came from a grassroots
movement not by those
who it feels compelled to answer
to.
The Army’s lies in Piñon Canyon ring across the canyons,
the grasslands,
and through the air that blows through
the
sage. It does so in canyons that were once homes to the
ancients, to Native
Americans, to Hispanics of New Spain
and
Old Mexico and now to families of this region who unlike those
who
receive bailouts and bonuses, these people
get up each
morning trying to turn land into a way of sustaining
life.
The Army on the other hand wants to turn this land into
a vehicle for
destroying life. Like the earth in
Piñion
Canyon, that truth appears to me as one that is hard as a
rock. When the
Army says it is not compelled to obey
the
funding ban, you can imagine that this latest clarion call
rings especially
hard for ranchers and small town
Americans
who by their nature are patriotic people. These are the
people
Presidents call upon when they want to
invade foreign
lands in the name of freedom and democracy. These are the
people
who historically have taught their
children to salute a flag and
enlist in the military. They will be less
inclined to do so under
the leadership of a
military and civilian government they have
been so abused by.
The chimera of Pinion Canyon Expansion is
a virtual monster whose parts
include an Army that uses our tax
dollars
infinitely against our will. This chimera is long on
waves of publicity
that promise schools, hospitals, and airports
to
poorer counties in Colorado. Its messengers arrive in SUVs
like a drug
cartel that reaches into the poor states of
rural
Mexico seeking to “make a deal” and to do favors. They say they
will
help build hospitals and schools. In the
process they
always takes the soul of the people these favors are
allegedly
for. With blank stares under stylized
sunglasses
these representatives of our government deliver an
unsaid
message. You will never win, we are too big,
too
powerful.
So far that day has not yet arrived. The people who
know this land or are
aware of this fight have come to realize
a
very real multi-headed enemy. One that has the power to take
the people’s
money and use it for their own political
and
economic gain.
If it is true that we have waged war in other
countries and swept up
innocent people as “enemy combatants”
and
detained them indefinitely, it is also the case that the
people of southern
Colorado have been swept up into a
larger
tide of abuse by the U.S. Army, Department of Defense and
military
contractors who profit most in times of war.
The
people of southern Colorado are now themselves detained indefinitely
on
land they have worked, inherited, or
purchased over many
generations and with tired eyes and worn hands. Even
when the
slow and encumbered wheels
of our republic’s democracy said “no”
the Army and its benefactors continue
on with blank stares and
worked to
make “deals” all historical indications suggest will
change as soon as that
deal is made.
While many Americans
want always to “support the troops.” This phrase and
its genesis
has been masterfully
manipulated by certain Presidents,
politicians and defense contractors.
They Army’s conduct in
Southern Colorado is
deplorable. It cannot help but cause the
people of this land to realize
they are experiencing a more
tragic example
of money and power manipulated name of protecting
freedom and democracy for
all.
In the name of freedom and
democracy and the call for an accountable
government, we
have no choice but to
support those who have steadfastly stood up
to and opposed this gross abuse
of power. With a new president
we
must force him and the federal, military, and defense
contractors whose
existence depends upon us that what our
Army
and Federal Government is doing in Southern Colorado must stop now
and
forever.
You can find some of these people at:
www.piñoncanyon.comThe chimera, a
mythological fire-breathing animal composed of multiple
parts, is
said to have had the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and
the
tail of a serpent. In human beings, the chimeric phenomenon
manifests as a
person with two genetically different types of
cells. For this issue, we
propose the chimera as a metaphor for
the creature of the border, for which
two different forms of
blood can exist in one body.
by its own
bureaucracy and the delays that money from a huge
defense
industry provides to elected representatives
and their
constituencies.
By PETER ROPER
THE PUEBLO
CHIEFTAIN
It was supposed to be the week the Army made the
dramatic announcement that
it had found a landowner willing
to
lease it 70,000 acres south of the Piñon Canyon Maneuver
Site.
When news of the potential lease agreement with Denver
businessman Craig
Walker was reported in The Pueblo
Chieftain
early last week, Colorado lawmakers jumped hard on the Army
—
particularly Reps. John Salazar and Betsy
Markey, who said
they would oppose the Army spending any money on leasing
or
purchasing land as long as local
ranchers opposed the
expansion.
As a result, when Keith Eastin, Army assistant
secretary for installations,
came to Fort Carson on Friday, he
said,
"We are talking to a number of landowners (south of Pinon
Canyon) who are
interested, but I have no deal."
For his
part, Walker has denied that he had reached any agreement or
even
received an offer.
Yet, Salazar, the Democrat whose
3rd Congressional District includes Pinon
Canyon, told the
newspaper that only
two weeks ago Eastin asked him to endorse a
lease agreement of Walker's
land, which makes up most of
the
100,000 acres the Army has targeted for acquisition. When
Salazar learned
the Army was going ahead with the
agreement,
he announced Tuesday he would use his seat on the
House
Appropriations Committee to stop it. "I'm
not
going to support any expansion of Pinon Canyon until the ranchers
in
that region come on board and agree to
it," he
said.
Markey, the Democrat who represents the 4th District,
was also quick to
challenge the Army. On Friday, she
and
Salazar asked the House Oversight and Government Reform
Committee to
investigate how the Army is able to keep
working
on the expansion when Congress put language in the 2008-09
budget
saying the Army couldn't spend any
money on the
effort.
"Today's announcement that the Army is proceeding
with negotiations to
acquire private land around Pinon
Canyon
is unconscionable," she said in a statement. Her letter to
the House
committee charges the Army has "decided to
skirt
clearly defined congressional intent."
The Army insists the
funding ban, authored by Salazar and former Rep.
Marilyn
Musgrave, only applies to military
construction funds, leaving it
free to use other money to solicit
landowners. That's a technical
argument that
Colorado Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet, also
Democrats, brushed aside
last week.
"The Army's action
violates the expressed intent of Congress that no effort
at
expansion take place under the
moratorium," Udall's spokesman
said last week.
When the pending agreement was reported last
week, the Army would neither
confirm nor deny its existence,
but
acknowledged Eastin was coming to Southern Colorado for a
two-day visit to
talk to "stakeholders" in the dispute.
By
Friday, that visit had been cut to a single day and Eastin stayed
at
Fort Carson, his trip to Trinidad canceled.
For his
part, Eastin said the Army is now encouraging a lease agreement
to
acquire the land it wants. A lease would
let the rancher
graze cattle on the land when it wasn't being used,
retain
ownership and keep the property on the
Las Animas
County tax rolls. In the past, Fort Carson officials have
said
they did not believe that part-time grazing
was
feasible.
Also, the Army still wants to build new training
ranges on the bigger Pinon
Canyon. Eastin said that should
produce
about 100 new jobs and a construction budget of $140
million.
While the ranchers opposing the expansion appear to
have kept a united
front in the three-year-fight, Eastin said
he
has had continuing talks with individual landowners and local
officials
about possibly finding financial help for
Trinidad's
hospital, airport and other assistance.
"We're certainly
willing to do that if we can find the right vehicle," he
said
Friday.
Lon Robertson, a Kim rancher and president of the
Pinon Canyon Expansion
Opposition Coalition, challenged
Eastin's
statements Friday, saying the Army has been claiming for
years that it is
talking to "willing sellers." In
particular,
Robertson said the half-dozen landowners caught
between Pinon Canyon and
the Walker property still are
opposed
to the expansion.
"I don't know where the Army
gets the gall to simply stand in front of
Congress and defy our
lawmakers," Robertson
said. "I don't know what else they can do
except call for Mr. Eastin's
resignation."
Eastin, a Bush
administration appointee, said he would only stay in his
job
until President Barack Obama's
administration replaces
him, which he expects to happen in the
not-too-distant
future.
"But I don't see the Army policy on Pinon Canyon
changing with the new
administration," he
said.