Resolve to Learn More About Your Rights in 2003
By
Joyce Morrison (jmorrison@illinoisleader.com)
The Illinois Leader
Tuesday, December 31, 2002
OPINION -- How about making the study of "property rights"
a New Year’s Resolution this year? Beware -- it will be like taking
the lid off Pandora’s Box. Once you really get into it, you will wonder
why you didn’t see what was happening all around you before.
If our legislators understood property rights, decision making on
legislation would be a very simple process and they would know what
destruction lay balanced on their votes such as "smart growth."
". . . [I]t is better to try to understand our fate, regardless
of its awful implications, so we can direct our energies into useful
rather than useless causes; and above all, it helps us distinguish
between good and bad, and right and wrong," said Dr. Philip Atkinson
September, 2000 - www.ourcivilization.com.
Dr. Atkinson points out there has been a move to divide our rights.
On one side is "human rights" and the other is "property
rights." This distinction has been accompanied by the claim that
"human rights" are superior to "property rights."
If you do not understand property rights, you will never be fully
effective working with human rights as "property rights are basic
to all rights."
Property rights researchers spend their time reading the fine print
in U.N. documents and in U.S. government bureau and agency reports.
In pursuit of "Global Governance," U.S. agencies are actually
implementing U.N. treaties (signed and unsigned) that effect every
part of our lives.
Very clever programs are launched to deceive even the most discerning.
If they did not sound so attractive, we would not accept them. Isn't
that the way the old devil works? Incentives (grants) are used to
"save" the earth . . . but does the earth really need to
be saved from you?
It is essential to know how to discern legitimate needs or a "takeover"
of property. Whenever you are trying to decide, ask yourself - is
it constitutional? Secondly - how does this effect the sovereignty
of the United States?
1. Individual ownership of property is constitutional.
2. Government owning or controlling massive acres of property is not
constitutional (Constitution says government can own property "for
the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, Dock Yards, and other
needful Buildings."
Private property ownership could be explained as "I work for
it - I pay for it - I pay the taxes - and it is mine . . . so I want
to take care of it."
Government ownership or control of property can be called socialism
or "for the good of all." I still work for it. I still help
pay for it - I pay higher taxes because of it, everyone else gets
to use it . . . and no one is really concerned about taking care of
it.
An illustration would be - you are a straight A student and study
hard to achieve. I am an F student because I am not concerned about
working for a better grade. Why should I? I get to share your A anyway
- we both soon lose our incentive to achieve.
This is what is happening to property. People who have worked hard
for ownership are finding the government is taking the land or restricting
the owner’s use by regulated controls. Stakeholders with no vested
interest make decisions about the use of private property by using
the endangered species act, viewsheds, conservation programs, watersheds,
wetlands, and many other property invasive measures.
Far more tax dollars are allocated for the government's acquisition
of land than for the maintenance.
You will find words being used in a whole new context with the use
of global terms. Delphi technique (consensus), stakeholders, buffers,
corridors, benchmark, smart growth, ecospheres, biospheres, communities,
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the list goes in the "new
vocabulary."
Do a self-test to see how much you really know about each of these
words.
What is really interesting is that our national parks all over the
U.S. were established for the public to use for recreation and enjoyment
and in recent years, they are being closed to the public because "YOU"
are destroying the eco-sphere.
There have been recent trail closings in the Shawnee Forest in southern
Illinois. This National Forest was originally intended for public
use, but now the trails are closed. If we are not permitted to responsibly
"use government property," then we need to ask who is the
government and who are they saving the parks for?
Well-funded environmental organizations are major stakeholders in
land-use controls. Partnering with government agencies, you will find
them lurking behind almost every move against private property.
Are we a free nation or are we a socialist nation? This is actually
up to us and the decisions we make as we participate on committees
and boards and in the representatives we elect. We may think we are
well informed - but are we? Could we be contributing to the selling
out of America by our uninformed consensus decisions?
Coming up to where we are today started many years ago. In fact, for
a great "Timeline to Global Government" beginning in 1891
to 2002, go to www.sovereignty.net.
An attack on land use was fully unleashed in 1992 following the Earth
Summit in Rio De Janeiro under the Clinton/Gore administration. See
Agenda 21 .
Sustainable Development through the United Nations Agenda 21 was born
in the U.S. in 1992. At the same time Al Gore wrote "Earth in
the Balance" and behind his book, was an agenda. Outcome Based
Education and Goals 2000 came on the scene at about this same time.
Watch for the 1992 time frame in your research.
We now have Al Gore’s Clean Water Initiative as well as his "Livability
Agenda". Clinton was known for his "Lands Legacy."
These programs are still progressing in one form or another.
If you dare mention the U.N., immediately you are labeled "radical."
Isn’t that interesting? All anyone has to do is go to the U.N.’s websites
and find the information. It is readily available, so what are they
trying to cover when they slap a "demeaning" label on you
for repeating their information?
For a start, check out the following websites: Agenda
21; U.N., UNESCO;
Commission on Global Governance
Former President Clinton initiated "The President’s Council on
Sustainable Development" following the 1992 Earth Summit meeting.
There are many books published through the Government Printing Office
on the findings of this Council. The money and programs were put into
place and they are moving ahead at a lightning speed - without Clinton
and Gore in office.
Control comes in as Smart Growth, soil and water conservation programs,
the farm bill, ecosystems, biospheres, through non governmental organizations
such as The American Planning Assn. and environmental groups such
as The Nature Conservancy and Sierra Club.
Every phase of our life is touched in some way and we still do not
recognize what is happening.
The Sustainable Development "Agenda for Action" is the design
for educating the public. All the way from the "School to Work"
program to TV cartoons such as "Captain Planet" and "The
Mighty Morphin Rangers" are programs designed to take the minds
of your children.
Are you informed enough to protect your children from being indoctrinated
with propaganda?
These excellent, well researched websites will be a great help as
you get started on your New Year’s resolution: www.freedom.org
(Henry Lamb); www.discerningtoday.org
(Why Property Rights Matter -- Dr. Michael Coffman); www.propertyrightsresearch.org
(Julie Smithson); www.americanpolicy.org
(Tom DeWeese).
Property is the fruit of labor. Property is desirable; It is a positive
good in the world: that some should be rich shows that others may
become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise.
Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another. But let
him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring
that his own shall be safe from violence when built.
-A. Lincoln
March 21, 1864
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Joyce Morrison
Joyce Morrison lives in Jersey County, Illinois. She is a chapter
leader for Concerned Women for America and she and her husband, Gary,
represent the local Citizens for Private Property Rights. Joyce is
Secretary to the Board of Directors of Rural Restoration/ADOPT Mission,
a national farm ministry located in Sikeston, MO. The group's SOWER
Magazine features Joyce's writing. Joyce is an activist and serves
as a member of the agricultural advisory board of U.S. Congressman
John Shimkus (R-IL).