Nevada cattle fracas democracy in action: Column

Cliven Bundy, a rancher in Clark County, Nevada, has been battling U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) fees for decades, culminating last week in an intense standoff between armed BLM agents, the Bundy family and dozens of protesters.

Regardless of who may be right, citizens and media spotlighting this conflict represents much needed oversight over government.

The BLM started imposing grazing fees after declaring the land habitat for federally protected tortoises. Bundy refused to pay the fees, arguing it was a states rights issue and that he was licensed to use the land since the 1870s, well before the BLM existed. Last year, a federal judge authorized impounding the cattle to pay BLM grazing fees.

Last week impounding began, culiminating on Saturday with a peaceful ending after BLMs seizure of almost 400cows.

The lesson here has nothing to do with endangered tortoises, or contract rights predating the formation of the BLM, grazing fees, states right or even whether the government is acting heavy-handedly by using armed men to seize cattle.

Rather the lesson is about caring citizens standing up for a cause, while openly criticizing and scrutinizing the government. That is the activity democracies are made of. Whether the cause of Cliven Bundy is legitimate is beside the point. We have citizens peaceably forming a protest against what they believe is government overreaching. That alone has drawn scrutiny over the governments actions. Such scrutiny and oversight are instrumental in a democracy.

Freedom of speech and assembly are the central pillars of our democracy that have historically been instrumental in exposing wrongs and bringing about positive social change.

So far it appears that the demonstrators at the Bundy Ranch have done nothing illegal. They were exercising there rights to assemble, protest, what they believe was government overreaching. The BLM, on the other hand, have been accused of excessive force, reckless tazing, and even attempting to geographically relegate protesters to presumably unconstitutional "First Amendment Zones." Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval even criticized the BLM for creating "an atmosphere of intimidation."

In the long-run, the value of citizens exposing the BLM's response will be more telling than the arcane details of dispute about grazing fees.

Eli Federman is an executive at an e-commerce company.

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