From March 10 , 2022 post.
Response to a Letter to the Editor of the Preston Citizen
Let's take it from someone who knows! Someone who has worked with government officials, policies, and laws concerning land and water rights issues and understands where change is needed. Rick Hydrick answers the letter from Steven Bennett of February 16, 2022 wherein the writer questions Ammon Bundy's ability to "take back federal land in Idaho" Let's see what Mr. Hydrick has to say about that!
Dear Editor,
What Ammon Bundy hopes to accomplish in the state of Idaho is indeed a heavy lift and a long pull. But if not now, when, and if not here, where? Idaho is one of the last bastions in our country of conservative thought and traditions based soundly on our state and nation’s constitutions. Helping get Ammon Bundy on the ballot will assist this conversation along until the day we vote in November.
The letter to the editor of February 16, 2022 (https://www.hjnews.com/preston/letter-to-the-editor/article_cc13c654-f7ec-5908-bd43-3a8d6e8f13e6.html) questioned Bundy’s ability and parenthetically that of Idaho’s citizens to use Constitutional means of both our state and our nation to restore the land in Idaho to the state, to Idahoans. The writer pronounces with his opinion but no specifics that the Supreme Court will not allow such a land transfer, even though the judicial philosophies of its conservative judges are weighted to the original meaning of the US Constitution. The Constitution clearly allows for such a possibility legislatively and judicially. If such a prospect as that detailed by Bundy, as well as others, is not tested, how will we ever know? How will anyone in our country ever know?
Idaho is the perfect state to fight for the Constitution of both its state and nation. Do we have the grit and expertise to do so? Bundy does and has proven it by using the same methods as our Founders and all who have protested, acted peacefully, and worked diligently to realize the full import of our founding documents and laws.
Please do not be fooled by the media. Bundy’s campaign website and public appearances reveal his integrity, qualifications, capability, and fortitude to lead Idaho based on its unique values and resources. He knows farming and is tech savvy, and he knows how to blend the two, which is important in our age.
To meet Bundy and hear him speak for himself, I promise, will be enlightening and will clarify his past actions, present positions, and future efforts to anyone willing to attend, listen, and question him. Bundy is not afraid, nor will he equivocate in answering your questions or concerns. It is well worth Idahoan’s time to let this man speak for himself directly to you.
Bundy’s efforts have not been stunts as the media portrays them, they have been studied attempts to correct the past by harnessing the Constitution – to protect Idahoan’s economy, solid traditions, and love and desperate need to protect the rule of law. His actions are on the same level as those of Martin Luther King’s as well as pioneer women and men’s efforts and methods to achieve Constitutional rights for the freedoms the founders and many since have envisioned and then secured. Every plank of Bundy’s campaign promises to recapture our Constitutional laws and values. It has happened before and can happen again. Idaho is ideally situated at this place in time for such an effort. It has the vitality, resources, imagination, and grit to see it through. Idaho is coming into its own at a perfect time. Protecting Idaho’s future is in our hands. We must try. Any other approach by the other gubernatorial candidates will lead right back to where we are now.
What are my credentials for offering my opinion on Ammon Bundy and the issues at hand?
The Lake Tahoe Basin the most regulated real estate in America, but with great likenesses to the resources of Idaho. As the Water Operations Manager over culinary, waste, and ranch water for the South Tahoe Public Utility District, I dealt with political leaders and bureaucrats on a daily basis for decades at the local, county, state, regional, and federal levels. Every inch of land, every drop of water, every business and home, every type of vegetation, fish, wildlife, urban/wildland interface is regulated in the basin. Every law in the smallest town to the largest city in America is found there also. I have helped develop water policy and law at the local, county, regional, state, and federal level knee to knee with government leaders from city council members and county supervisors to Congressmen and Senators and hundreds of bureaucrats working in dozens of agencies. Feel free to google my name.
Sincerely,
Rick Hydrick
Preston, Idaho
Original source can be found here.
