EPA

The Impact of Coal Restrictions on the Navajo Nation: Sen. Carlyle Begay

Anita Christy

In announcing his recent decision to change from the Democrat to the Republican Party, Arizona Senator Carlyle Begay spoke of unemployment rates as high as 80% in his district.   He also stated that future progress in Arizona has to include partnerships with rural and tribal communities.  It is the Republican party that has embraced these crucial partnerships, which are the cornerstone of the future of our state.

As a rural Arizonan living in Gila County, I understand some of the concerns that we share.  Rural and tribal Arizonans live in and of the land.  We are sustained by it.  We respect and love it.  Rural Arizona offers rich natural resources that have fed, clothed, sheltered, and provided energy and water to millions of people.  

The Democrat Party has waged war on our livestock, timber, and coal industries, the very industries that sustain Arizona’s rural and tribal communities.    

Back in July 2015, then Democrat Senator Carlyle Begay spoke at the Heartland Institute’s International Conferences on Climate Change. 

Please see a summary of Senator Begay’s speech following the video.  

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Gilbert Watch Welcomes Contributing Editor, Patrick O’Malley

Anita Christy

Patrick O’Malley is the newest member of the Gilbert Watch editorial team, and we are honored that he has joined us.  

Patrick is an electrical engineer with 40 years experience, mostly with Motorola and Freescale Semiconductor, as a design and application engineer. He holds four patents. He chose to emphasize time over money and retired early to grow citrus, get a license to operate public drinking water systems, and study water and the environment. His previous political experience was limited to serving on the Board of a small irrigation district. The overwhelming conservative win in the 2010 elections followed by the disappointing lack of change in government policies convinced him it was time to stop complaining and get actively involved. Patrick is a Republican Precinct Committeeman in Legislative District 12, and serves as its Treasurer.

Patrick has written the following articles of serious interest to all Arizona’s citizens:  

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Why does no one seem to care?

Anita Christy

(The following article was sent to me anonymously.  It’s a timely, accurate, and thoughtful essay that needs to be read by every American.)

Are you aware that we the people are under assault in this country?  Maybe not you personally, yet, but when one group of patriots in America is deprived of their freedoms guaranteed to them by the Constitution, it’s a hostile invasion of all who stand for liberty.  And that is what happened to the ranchers in Harney County, Oregon, in the past weeks, and in Nevada before that.  There is a systematic taking of our precious liberties.

Why does no one seem to care?

Where is the media on this?  Where are the folks who are focused on restoring our trust lands across the western United States?  Are we to sit and watch those among us get incarcerated for ranching?  For peacefully protesting the egregious treatment they have received from their own government, for years?

We know that these lands do not belong to the federal government.  The federal government manages those lands for we the people under contracts that were supposed to be assigned back to the states years ago.  The federal government contracts grazing leases to local ranchers. These grazing leases abut the ranches owned by private citizens of the United States.  These ranchers, by and large, are good stewards of the lands they lease to use for grazing.  But they are methodically being deprived of the use of the lands owned by we the people, even with legal leases to do so. In Oregon, the Burea of Land Management (BLM) is burning grazing land that is under lease to ranchers for grazing their cattle, and the BLM is burning the cattle, homes, and corrals in the process.  

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Please STOP the EPA’s War on Coal in Northern Arizona: Sen. Sylvia Allen

Anita Christy

Please submit your comments to the EPA expressing your opposition to the jobs-killing "Clean Power Plan."   The environmentalist groups–who don’t live anywhere near Northern Arizona–are writing in favor of the plan four to one.  We need your comments!  The letter Arizona Senator Sylvia Allen used to submit a comment is below.  You are welcome to use all or part of it, but please write how this plan will affect you and your family. 

Here are the instructions to submit your comments:

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Arizona Sen. Carlyle Begay: “We Must See Ourselves in a Whole New Light”

Anita Christy

As noted in a November 24 news article, Senator Carlyle Begay has recently changed from the Democrat to Republican Party.  I have never met Sen. Begay, but I’ve observed him and heard his remarks during the last legislative session.  He is a highly intelligent, thoughtful, well-educated man.  Both Democrats and Republicans can politicize his decision all they want, but I know that he will be guided by his convictions, not politics, whenever he casts his votes.  The welfare of his constituents, many of whose ancestors were the First Arizonans, will rank far above either party.  He believes that the time has come for his people to achieve prosperity. In fact, he wants all Arizonans to prosper.  Please watch this video.  Notice the many terms and phrases that he uses.  This is what the Republican Party stands for.  

In the following video, you will gain some insight into why Senator Begay is adamant that "change must happen" and why he believes it is the Republican Party that is working to find solutions that will help the people that Sen. Begay represents.  He explains that "families living within our rural and tribal communities are in a crisis.  Unemployment is as high as 80%.  Roads, bridges, and infrastructure are wasting away.  Many Native American families are without electricity and clean, running water.  Native American students have some of the lowest graduation rates and some of the highest drop-out rates.  Native Americans have the highest rates of suicide in the country."    Senator Begay desires to work within the Republican Party to build a bridge connecting those who need and want a chance with those who can help provide that chance. The Republican Party is the party of progress, the party of opportunity.  It is, now, Senator Begay’s Party.  

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