Beef and freedom

Dear Justices of The U.S. Supreme Court:

If possible I would like to exercise my First Amendment rights. In doing so I need to give you a setting.

In preparing to go about doing my daily chores as a farmer and rancher, those that must be done every day, seven days a week, I turned on the TV and watched a short presentation of a young service man that was only 19 years of age being laid to rest in Wyoming. He had died on foreign soil thousands of miles from home. He was doing what our service men do -- defending our country and way of life. I thought, "All give something, but he gave all." The officer in charge of the honor guard didn't know this young man; however, in doing his duty to God and Country and in the span of a few days he grew to love this departed soul. His voice broke and tears fell as he performed his duty to this departed soldier and those who remained to mourn the young life lost. He had been sent by the military to give comfort, but in the end was given comfort by those he endeavored to comfort.

What a heart-wrenching assignment.

Today is Memorial Day. May 30, 2005. I watched as the flag passed, carried by service men of wars and conflicts past. Their gait was a little stronger, their heads held a little higher than they were yesterday as they went about their daily routine. They were among those that gave something and remembered those who gave all. As the flag passed I covered my heart with my right hand and was filled with pride.

It was then I noticed a young service man. He stood at attention and saluted. So young, so tall and oh so proud. Hair cut square and eyes alert, it made him stand out in any crowd.

I thought of how many men like him had fallen through the years. How many died on foreign soil and, oh how many tears have been wiped away by fathers, mothers, wives, husbands and those children who never got to know their loved ones.

How many pilots, the smartest of our best, have been shot down in planes? How many died at sea or are buried in unmarked foxholes -- the silent soldiers' graves?

I stood at the cemetery and heard the sound of Taps. I listened to the bugler play and felt a sudden chill. I felt a tear fall from my cheek. I wondered, "How many must die to defend our country from unsuspecting people who throw our constitutional rights away, in the name of self-service." I say to myself, "Freedom isn't free."

I say to those of you who make up our Supreme Court, shame on you. Shame, shame on you! My history book taught that I had constitutional rights. The mandatory beef check that you have recently reviewed does violate those constitutional rights.

The beef check off program was promoted to cattlemen as "a producer run and controlled organization free of government invention." Yet to serve on the beef board, the Secretary of Agriculture must approve an appointment. Government control! Now I am informed that the "What's for dinner?" advertising campaign is government speech.

The Bible states that a man shall be the "first to taste the fruits of his own labor." Mandatory collections deny that Christian belief. Where is the separation of Church and State? Where are my rights? Illegal immigrants and those who are given asylum have more rights than I do as a tax paying native-born citizen! Your recent ruling denies my right to own property and furthermore removes my right to voice how the "taxes" taken from that property is going to be used, since it has been declared "government speech."

I must assume, therefore, that the government owns our cattle herd. Farmers and ranchers are only caretakers of those animals. If government can take one dollar per head and I have no say about it, they can also take the entire animal or any part of it against my will. The Supreme Court has gone so far as to call the beef check off a "tax."

Taxes are paid by all and go to support government. If all are to be taxed equally and have paid advertising costs to promote life's work, let's start to collect a check off fee on every dollar judges are paid. Every dollar doctors are paid.

Every dollar preachers or teachers are paid. We the cattlemen have been singled out to pay an unjust and unfair tax that the rest of the taxpayers of the nation do not bear the burden.

I say once again shame, shame, shame on you, judges of the United States Supreme Court. I recommend you get a third grade history book. Read it and ask yourselves "If a court that supports the killing of millions of our future taxpayers before they are born and randomly selects those who bear the burden of unfair taxation in the name of a check off, have we not gone full circle?"

Once again America has taxation without representation. Tax all fairly, not just food producers of the world.

Respectfully,

Gary Malone

A citizen who has lost his constitutional rights.

Palisade