We are fortunate in this county to have so many pre-eminent constitutional scholars like Dexter Gill (Letters, Journal, May 23). Unfortunately it seems they earned their degrees by listening to skewed radio programs. First of all, Gill needs to figure out the difference between an editorial and reporting. I don’t have the room here to school him on what actually happened in history but suffice to say the same laws and court decisions that protect the government’s right to land ownership are the very same ones that protect Gill’s private property – if he owns any. I can imagine his reaction if someone unilaterally decided to ride an ATV all over Gill’s property.
Real history reveals the federal government has been more than generous with ranchers, timber, mining and oil companies, etc., with public lands. I doubt if Gill would have enough time left in his life to ride every one of the thousands of miles of trails that are available on local Utah and Colorado federal lands. Handing these lands over to the state government vastly increases the chances they will finally fall into the hands of someone like Cliven Bundy or a big corporation.
I would be interested to see the armed confrontation between Bundy and his goon supporters from Montana and Idaho if those same supporters were found riding around on ATVs uninvited on his land. Finally, I challenge Gill to take his ATV to find a place to ride in Texas, which grew up as separate country without government-owned land.
Terry Moores
Mancos