Editor,
As we enter another election cycle, perhaps it is important to remind those running for offices, that there is an increasingly ignored, maligned section of society in Pershing and Humboldt Counties called Rural America who is getting fed up with being treated like second class citizens.
I am referring to those of us struggling to be self-sufficient, raise our own meat, eggs, vegetables and live peacefully in a rural setting with our livestock and who are increasingly finding our way of life under attack. More and more city people moving out to the country often move here with a mis-guided sense of entitlement. Typically without any livestock, they arrive with a bang: loud boom boxes, loud parties, roaring ATVs, dirt bikes, motorcycles and quads. They set about being noisy and disrespectful of their neighbors and their animals.
These people are often enabled by property management or real estate companies who tell renters they can "do what they please out in the country" because according to them, "no one will care."
Well I have news for you. Ranchers, preppers, hobby farmers, homesteaders DO care. We also vote.
We embrace a life close to nature. We work hard. We try to show respect to our close neighbors by keeping excessive noise to a minimum.
Last week I was passed by a motorcyclist on Grass Valley Road easily doing 85 mph. Humboldt County SO was hot on his tail. I and several other vehicles pulled over to let HCSO go by in his pursuit. But when the biker went over county line, he stopped his pursuit and turned around.
The Pershing County speeder got away, to live to speed another day.
Welcome to our world.
Brenda M. Negri
Winnemucca
