The New York Times: The Ideological Roots of the Oregon Standoff
PRA executive director Tarso Luís Ramos speaks with NY Times reporter Alan Feuer about the developing armed standoff in rural Oregon, and its roots in the 1980s and 1990s’ Wise Use Movement, founded by timber industry advisor Ron Arnold. “Arnold sent organizers into distressed rural communities to set up front groups with environmentally friendly sounding names that whipped up hostility against the government,” Ramos tells the Times. “What resulted was a coalition of natural-resource companies, property developers and conservative activists working with a network of community organizations. These groups came very close to the centers of power.