Taking back the lands

To the Editor:

Charles Vincent's (legislator) recent letter on the envieron "emotional" quality councils concerns about "nutty" Al Gore's global warming nonsense (2+2=5, What?)

Had this Vincent comment, "The issue at hand is not private land management, it is public!" is to me truth, Montana's land in all of its 56 counties: Just that, only that of it (6,900,467 acres, 10,923 square miles) have been claimed as federal government forest lands falsely.

It was stolen back in the 1890s and early 1900s in violation of the constitution's article I, Sec. 3, clause 17, amendments V IX and X. This theft was done to all of the western states except Hawaii by the devices of the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Services and National Parks.

East of the Mississippi in 1993, the Forest Service/Agriculture Department tried to take New York state's forest bordering on Canada, but were stopped by a 9-0 vote of the supreme court for New York and its citizens.

A precedent that no one state's governor, attorney general and legislature has to date taken advantage of to take back its and its citizen's lands. This isn't rocket science. A governor with guts, an attorney general with brains and a legislature that will back them all the way directly to the supreme court will (using the constitutional article and amendments cited) take back our lands and restore our sovereignty. All 37 states on entry are equal to the original 13 under law (U.S. statues at large XXXX chapter).

Instead of arguing with the federal government over our land, roads, forest, etc., our commissioners and legislators should set a plan in motion to establish: 1 - state forests, 2- sell those valley areas of forest in 5, 10, or 20 acre parcels to its state citizens of legal age, (18), who are registered resident voters of one year.

A requirement of resale by then shall be five year ownership, 3- No non-American will be eligible to purchase. An obvious result: An expanded tax base, a re-growth of the timber industry, now vacant mills will be opened and hiring.

With this and more taxes, government and the schools will be funded from us and not the socialistic-hand-outs from our bloated federal gout.

Freeman Johnson

Troy