Stevieslaw: The Scouring of the Shire

You can get a pretty good picture of how it’s going to be by listening to what the people happiest about the shrinking of the national monuments—Bears Ears and Grand Staircase in this case, are saying about the decision. The National Cattleman’s Beef Association President said, “We are grateful that today’s action will allow ranchers to resume their role as responsible stewards of the land and drivers of rural economics.”

Who wouldn’t choose them as stewards of the land?

We are at war.

In Tolkien’s Ring Trilogy, the four hobbits—Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin, fought against evil throughout the war of the rings, but it was not until they returned to their native Shire to face a despoiled and wasted landscape, that they understood the pervasiveness of evil. Nothing had been spared—certainly not their little piece of heaven on earth that was the Shire.

Trump and his evil band of Republican thugs will change the landscape of this nation. Whole pieces of it will become unrecognizable. The evil they will create, in the name of making money, is just beginning.

The hobbits scour the Shire of evil, but they cannot undo all of the evil done to the land and the people. They resolve, instead, to start anew. To build something better.

It sounds like a plan.