DIVIDING THE SHEEP FROM THE GOATS

Written by Todd Vaughn

Let’s be brutally honest with each other.

This world, on every level…in every way…is just too complicated for any of us to really understand. To quote an old friend of mine who has long since passed away “I can see a lot more than I can understand…there are just too many moving parts.” We were loggers at that time and loggers work in a very dangerous environment, especially those of us who became members of a “riggin’ crew” on a yarder side. Riggin’ crews are the equivalent of “Special Ops,” and over the years, both of us have been killed at least 20 or 30 times…and yet, one of us is still here. For me (the one who lives on) my friend’s observation was not only correct at the time, but it has become more and more pertinent as I continue my journey.

The fact is, very few of us have the humility to acknowledge what my old friend readily admitted. The problem is, our eyes can only look in one direction at a time, and our brains can only think about one thing at a time. In other words, an unavoidable and disabling form of tunnel-vision is constantly compromising our ability to survive…day in and day out. All loggers know this simple truth: “It’s not what you see that kills you…it’s what you don’t see,” and “It’s not what you’re worried about that gets you… it’s what you haven’t even thought about!”

I know a timber cutter who was walking to his next tree, when he woke up with his face buried in the dirt and his deeply dented hard-hat a few yards away. He had been unconscious for quite some time according to his watch, but he got up and went home to his wife. Others don’t wake up when the “widow-maker” strikes. Nobody ever sees it coming…there are just too many moving parts. Douglas County was once “the timber capital of the world,” but something terrible happened…something we never saw coming. The same type of thing happened to the state of Oregon, and for that matter, to the United States of America. We’ve been blind-sided by something far worse than the physical dangers that lead to the death of individuals. As a society embracing self-governance based on free and fair elections, we have been struck down by an invisible enemy…”an enemy from within.”

According to the Bible, all of us were born with a sin-nature that we inherited and cannot rid ourselves of. This nature is driven by a need to control… a need to have our way with everything and everyone around us. We cannot stop this innate desire to control the world around us any more than a goat can stop his desire to headbutt everything around him (to force submission) and then to climb to the highest perch available (to survey his kingdom). Just watch a goat for a while and tell me I’m wrong!

Although many of us were raised by wise parents who taught us to exercise “self-control” over these selfish impulses, we all give into “the need to control” to some degree. However, the ones who were not taught self-control…and the ones who cast off all forms of self-restraint, become evil doers…just like the Devil himself.

This is the lesson of “the goats,” and most politicians are goats. Whether they start out that way or not, they nearly all give into an unhealthy need to control. When they get elected, they enter into a “club of control-freaks” that believe that they are “smarter and/or stronger” than the people who they rule over. In their minds, they have been given the right to do whatever they must in order to preserve control. This is what happened to our elections.

Human-nature dictates that cheating is the inevitable result when staunch precautions and strictly enforced election laws are relaxed. Our “lawmakers” have opened the door to the goats…and the goats have closed the door to honest citizens who would expose their corruption. This is the game that our Douglas County commissioners have been playing for quite some time now. They have been headbutting and bullying anyone who challenges their authority…and that includes elections. When honest, would-be public servants can no longer win elections, they simply quit challenging “the powers that be,” and the voters quit voting. Why bother, if the goats always win, right?

Nobody really saw this coming. Like my old friend used to say “too many moving parts.” But now that the goats are being exposed, the voters of this county have no excuse. The commissioners are saying “don’t believe your lying eyes,” but it’s not your eyes that are lying…it’s them, and they have been lying all along…and cheating too!

I urge you to SUPPORT and VOTE FOR great candidates like Steve Hammerson who is running against Chris Boice. Together, we can “beat the cheat.” Let’s send the goats packing, and let’s take our county back!

WE NEED STEVE!