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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Worth the weight ... Oregon author Brian Doyle visits valley ... 'Ring of Fire' a loving tribute to iconic country star Johnny Cash ... Worth the weight ... Oregon author Brian Doyle visits valley ... 'Ring of Fire' a loving tribute to iconic country star Johnny Cash ... RELOCATIONS Herb Rothschild Jr.: A sit-in that failed Comment DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Feb. 20, 2016 at 12:01 AM Posted Feb. 20, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Social News To what shall we compare the occupation of Malheur? John Brown’s seizure of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in 1859 or a student sit-in in a college president’s office? Brown’s effort to spark an armed insurrection failed in the short term. Yet it strengthened the cause of abolition. Brown was captured by federal troops but charged with treason, not against the U.S., but Virginia. For many Northerners, his execution turned him into a martyr. Union troops sang “John Brown’s body lies a-moldering in the grave” as they marched in the streets of Boston on July 18, 1861. Set to an old camp meeting tune, it soon became a popular marching song. Later, Julia Ward Howe wrote new lyrics; her version became The Battle Hymn of the Republic. If the Bundys believed they could draw thousands of armed insurrectionists to their cause, they should have checked out the world beyond their self-validating social media. The only time such an event occurred in our recent history was a reprise of the Civil War at Ole Miss in October 1962 when James Meredith became the first black to register there. “The Battle of Oxford” did draw some armed outsiders to campus, but the primary insurrectionists were the Ole Miss students, who had been called to resist by the state’s governor and were supported tacitly by a state police presence. In contrast, even if some Harney County residents were sympathetic to the Bundys, their occupation had no active support by locals, and it was met by the united hostility of state and local officials. And just as the Ole Miss uprising had no long-term success in resisting “federal overreach,” neither will the Malheur occupation. If the Bundys sought martyrdom, the FBI wisely deprived them of it. (LaVoy Finicum apparently sought martyrdom, but his death from questionable use of deadly force in tense circumstances won’t give it to him.) They won’t be tried for treason and hanged, but for obstructing the operation of the wildlife refuge and jailed, hardly the stuff of song. No battalions will march to a tune extolling their sacrifice. Though a student sit-in hardly accords with the Bundys’ heroic view of their action, I think it’s a better comparison than insurrection. “We’re here and we’re going to stay until our demands are met.” But unlike most student demands, the Bundys’ demand that lands in national trust be turned over to state and local control couldn’t be met. It would take an act — probably several acts — of Congress to do that, and those constituents who don’t represent Western ranching, timbering, and mining interests would never consent to be deprived of our public heritage. Which brings us to the essential weakness of the Sagebrush Rebellion and its latest iteration in Eastern Oregon. While many of us may think that the management of public lands hasn’t always struck the wisest balance between public concerns and beneficial private uses, we want those conflicts to be worked through case by case, with all the stakeholders at the table. It’s not only that the forces the Bundys represent — the Koch brothers, for example, are major funders of their movement — seek a simplistic solution to a complex challenge. It’s also, and more importantly, that theirs is a self-interested intention tricked out in principled language. Almost all of us get that, which is why we wanted them to get out. Herb Rothschild's column appears in the Tidings every Saturday. DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Feb. 20, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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