Our Land
June 06, 2009
Our Land! It's a rallying cry people have been fighting and dying for since history began.
One of the things me and my boys, (ok, my boys and I), enjoy doing is watching trains. If ever there was something that was more impressive up close in real life than on TV or in a book, it's trains. Standing 10 or 15 feet away from a few million pounds of steel coming right at you and then flying by at 60 mph is something that a picture just can do justice to.
Anyway, a few months ago, we headed to one of our usual places to wait for a train to come, and as we got there, an angry looking rancher sped down the hill in front of us on his giant utility quad. I wasn't sure if it was an anger or intelligence thing, but for whatever reason, he didn't seem capable of speaking in complete sentences. He got up in our faces and told us that he was on "theft" patrol, and that we were "trespassing" on his property, and he was tired of people stealing, etc. etc.
It kind of ruined the mood of a fun evening watching trains, and on top of that, it meant the end of ever watching trains at that great spot again. I tried to explain to the boys, that although the man was rude, and he shouldn't have been rude, we had to realise that he was probably frustrated from having people steal from his ranch.
Later that evening when I was watching the news, and a story about the fighting in the Middle East came on, an ironic thought came to my mind. The people over there, and people just like them here and all over the world, are fighting "the other side" so that they can keep this land as "their land". Here's the ironic thing : most the guys fighting and dying for "their land" will never own or have any rights to a single square inch of it, even if "their side" wins. If they take one step into a vineyard or a meadow that they don't own, they'll be chased out by one of their fellow countrymen just like my boys and I were.
When I drive up the beautiful coastline of California, I can look but I can't touch. Ninety-nine percent is fenced and off limits. I can't step foot on it. So it is for the people in the Middle East, and similar conflicts all over. They can die for "their land", and they can send their sons to die for "their land", but they better not try to step foot on any of it, or they'll be "trespassing"!
-- Greg