They’ll be back

The gang in Oregon really wanted a martyr and they finally got one. Now, of course, they’re variously claiming that LaVoy Finicum was ambushed and shot in the back and lying on the ground and also somehow had his hands up. Next tweet you see, they’ll say he was singing “Amazing Grace” and passing out treats to needy children.

I’m sure he was a nice enough guy. He probably should have stuck to ranching. Instead he started believing all the Bundy bullshit about tyranny and living free according to a highly selective interpretation of the Constitution. I think he also became a little bit drunk on the fame he got by waxing poetic to reporters. Always striding around with the .45 on his hip, like he was Shane or somebody. Of course, Shane didn’t go around boasting about out how ready he was to kill and die for a fairly selfish reason.

To be fair, he got a lot more chances than most armed militants get. Here in America, anybody with “rancher” in their job description gets a pass for all sorts of things: trespass, theft, armed intimidation and dopey cliches. Somehow we see it as this noble mission in life, instead of what it is: just another private enterprise seeking to make a profit. We forget that most small-business folks don’t take up arms, as Finicum did, to avoid the various fees and regulations that are an onerous but inevitable part of civilized society.

Looks like things at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge are winding down. Four or five diehards remain, probably reevaluating their earlier rhetoric about killing and dying. Funny how that works. Their fearsome guns and camo and night-vision goggles don’t seem so intimidating now that they’re dealing with people a bit more dangerous than BLM employees. Makes you wonder if they really thought this through.

They’ll all go home eventually. But I doubt they’ll be chastened. They’ve got a martyr, unlikely as he is, and his name will come up wherever self-styled militias congregate. A regular Mahatma Gandhi, gunned down in cold blood. There will be talk of revenge. You’ll remember Oklahoma City.

What a country. Like ISIS loons aren’t enough to worry about; now we’ve got to worry about these guys too.