Tired of the armed militia occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, two Oregon brothers have launched a fundraiser to raise money for foes of the occupiers, including a gun control group and a Native American tribe whose members claim the refuge as their ancestral land.
According to OregonLive, Eugene natives Zach and Jake Klonoski launched an online campaign Sunday morning that they will maintain until the the occupiers abandon their illegal seizure of the refuge.
Using the acronym G.O.H.O.M.E. (Getting the Occupiers of Historic Oregon Malheur Evicted), the brothers stated that funds raised on the website will go to groups antithetical to the militia movement.
"The more pledges we get, the more pressure there is for them to leave," said Zach Klonoski, who works for Portland Mayor Charlie Hales. "Otherwise we're going to continue funding groups that they despise."
Planned recipients of the funds include a gun control campaign, a local group that supports the wildlife refuge the occupiers want to take back for "the people," an organization that has called Bundy and his armed followers "extremists," and the Native American tribe claiming the land as home to their ancestors.
By mid-Sunday, the site had already accumulated over $3,100 in pledges.
The brothers stated that they watched the armed standoff with federal authorities at the Nevada Bundy ranch in the spring of 2014 and were "were not very happy" when Ammon Bundy came to Oregon.
According to the mission statement of the newly formed anti-occupation group, the website will collect pledges that will "fund the most appropriate groups to combat the ignorance and hate of the Malheur NWR occupiers. For each day the unlawful occupation continues, the pledged funding for these groups will increase. It is our hope that the nonnative occupiers will see the futility of their wrongful takeover and peacefully go home! #GOHOMEMALHEUR"
"We feel Oregonians generally oppose the occupation," Zach Klonoski explained, "and we want to provide them with a peaceful and meaningful way to express their anger, frustration and opposition."
